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SIR GALAHAD. 

From the painting by G. F. Watts. 



( 

The Silver Series of English and American Classics 



v 



TENNYSON 



M> 



fTSO 



THE HOLY GRAIL 



EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES 

BY 

SOPHIE JEWETT 

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE 
WELLESLEY COLLEGE 




' ' 3 ' } ^ ^ . ' 

' ? 3 ^ 3 ^ 3 > ) 






SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY 

NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO 




THE LliRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Cowtd Received 

JUL. 17 1901 

Copyright entry 

CLASS <^XXo. N». 

COPY B. 






Copyright, 1901, 
By silver, BURDETT AND COMPANY. 



• *• •' 



• -• • -• 



SIE GALAHAD. 

My good blade carves the casques of men, 

My tough lance thrusteth sure, 
My strength is as the strength of ten, 

Because my heart is pure. 
The shattering trumpet shrill eth high, 

The hard brands shiver on the steel, 
The splinter'd spear-shafts crack and fly, 

The horse and rider reel : 
They reel, they roll in clanging lists. 

And when the tide of combat stands. 
Perfume and flowers fall in showers. 

That lightly rain from ladies' hands. 

How sweet are looks that ladies bend 

On whom their favours fall ! 
For them I battle till the end, 

To save from shame and thrall : 
But all my heart is drawn above, 

My knees are bowed in crypt and shrine, 
I never felt the kiss of love, 

IS'or maiden's hand in mine. 
More bounteous aspects on me beam. 

Me mightier transports move and thrill ; 
5 



SIR GALAHAD. 

So keep I fair thro' faith and prayer 
A virgin heart in work and will. 

When down the stormy crescent goes, 

A light before me swims, 
Between dark stems the forest glows, 

I hear a noise of hymns : 
Then by some secret shrine I ride ; 

I hear a voice, but none are there ; 
The stalls are void, the doors are wide, 

The tapers burning fair. 
Fair gleams the snowy altar-cloth. 

The silver vessels sparkle clean. 
The shrill bell rings, the censer swings. 

And solemn chaunts resound between. 

Sometimes on lonely mountain-meres 

I find a magic bark ; 
I leap on board : no helmsman steers : 

I float till all is dark. 
A gentle sound, an awful light ! 
(^ Three angels bear the Holy Grail. 
With folded feet, in stoles of white. 

On sleeping wings they sail. 
Oh, blessed vision ! Blood of God ! 

My spirit beats her mortal bars. 
As down dark tides the glory slides, 
• And, star-like, mingles with the stars. 

When on my goodly charger borne 
Thro' dreaming towns I go, 



SIR GALAHAD. 

The cock crows ere the Christmas morn, 

The streets are dumb with snow. 
The tempest crackles on the leads, 

And, ringing, springs from brand and mail ; 
But o'er the dark a glory spreads. 

And gilds the driving hail. 
I leave the plain, I climb the height ; 

No branchy thicket shelter yields ; 
But blessed forms in whistling storms 

Fly o'er waste fens and windy fields. 

A maiden knight — to me is given 
' Such hope, I know not fear; 

I yearn to breathe the airs of heaven 
That often meet me here. 
"^ I muse on joy that will not cease, 
^ Pure spaces clothed in living beams, 
Pure lilies of eternal peace. 

Whose odours haunt my dreams ; 
And stricken by an angel's hand. 

This mortal armour that I wear. 
This weight and size, this heart and eyes. 
Are touch'd and turn'd to finest air. 

The clouds are broken in the sky, 

And thro' the mountain-walls 
A rolling organ-harmony 

Swells up, and shakes and falls. 
Then move the trees, the copses nod, 

Wings flutter, voices hover clear : 



8 SIR GALAHAD. 

"0 just and faithful knight of God, 

E-ide on ! the prize is near ! '' 

So pass I hostel, hall, and grange ; 

By bridge and ford, by park and pale 
All-arm'd I ride, whatever betide. 
Until I find the Holy Grail. 

Tennyson. Published in 1842. 



L 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

SIR GALAHAD. Poem Tennyson 5 

PREFACE 11 

INTRODUCTION: • 

I. The Various Versions of the Legend of the Holy Grail 13 

1. The Three Groups of Mediaeval Stories . . 14 

A. The Perceval Romances .... 16 

B. Stories of the Early History of the Holy 

Grail 25 

C. The Story of the Quest of the Holy Grail 28 

2. Tennyson's Poem 32 

3. Wagner's Parsifal 34 

II. Biographical Note 35 

III. Chronology of Tennyson's Life 42 

IV. Chronology of Tennyson's Poems .... 43 
V. Chronology of the Arthurian Poems .... 44 

VI. Summary of the Story as told in Sir I'homas Malory's 

Morte Darthur 45 

VII. Analysis of Tennyson's Poem 57 

VIII. Bibliography . . . . . . . .57 

THE HOLY GRAIL 65 

NOTES 93 

APPENDIX 119 



1 




I 



PREFACE. 

In this edition of The Holy Grail the purposes of the 
editor have been chiefly two: to make the explanatory 
notes as few and as clear as possible, and to interest the 
student in the beauty of that world of old legends, to which 
English poets, from Spenser to Tennyson, have turned for 
subject and for inspiration. Not all the Arthurian ro- 
mances are easily accessible; for that reason quotations 
are given at some length, but it is hoped that the bibliog- 
raphy may be useful to those wdio wish to purchase books. 
Such beautiful and inexpensive volumes as the Temple 
Classics edition of the Morte Dartluir, and The High History 
of the Holy Grail, Mr. NewelPs King Arthur and the Table 
Round, and Miss Weston's translations, are within the 
reach of every school or town library. 

The editor has tried to avoid much comment upon the 
imaginative and the technical beauties of the text, believing 
that such things are better left for the student to discover 
for himself, or, failing that, for the teacher to suggest in 
the class room. For like reasons, definitions of unusual 
words are not given when they are to be found in any 
good dictionary. 

The editor's many obligations to students of Tennyson's 

poetry and to students of Arthurian romance are gratefully 

acknowledged. 

April 20, 1901. 

11 



INTRODUCTION. 



I. THE VAEIOUS VERSIONS OF THE LEGEND. 

The legend of the Holy Grail is the most beautiful 
of mediaeval stories. It appears in many and widely dif- 
fering forms. It was told and retold in different countries 
and in different centuries, sometimes by true poets, some- 
times by mere imitators and chroniclers. In its various 
forms are embodied the highest mediaeval ideals of 
conduct and of faith. In the nineteenth century the 
ancient legend has not lost its charm. One version sug- 
gested Wagner's great opera Parsifal, and another Tenny- 
son's idyll The Holy Orail. 

A difficult and probably impossible task of modern 
scholarship is the classification of the Grail legends accord- 
ing to date, authorship, and interrelation. It is almost 
certainly true that no research will ever accurately deter- 
mine the relative age of existing romances, much less the 
sequence of the original stories. Too many links in the 
chain are broken, and too many are lost. 

The student interested in this study is referred to the 
Bibliography (VIII. below), and especially to Mr. Nutt's 
Studies in the Legend of the Holy Grail and to Mr. Newell's 
articles in the Journal of American Folklore, 

13 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

1. The Three Groups of Medieval Stories. 

The most important legends of the Holy Grail may be 
divided into three groups : — 

A. Those which tell the story of Perceval and the castle 

of the Grail. 

B. Those which give the early history of the Holy Grail 

and of Joseph of Arimathoea. 

C. Those which tell of the quest of the Holy Grail by the 

knights of Artliur's court. 

The story of Perceval is almost certainly older than the 
other two; and the early history of the Grail maybe of 
later invention than the story of Galahad and the quest. 

The earliest known version of the story of Perceval is the 
poem by Qlir^ien de Troyes, a French poet of the twelfth 
century. The next is a poem by Wolfram von Eschenbach, 
a German poet of the thirteenth century.^ 

In the legend of Perceval the Grail is a wonderful cup ^ 
which has come from heaven. It is kept in a magic castle, 
Monsalvat, and is guarded by a Grail king and a group 
of attendant Grail knights and Grail maidens. The Grail 
provides for its guardians marvelous feasts served without 
hands. The reigning Grail King of the story lies wounded, 
and daily the Holy Grail and a bleeding lance are borne 
before him ; but he may not be healed until the best knight 
of the world shall come and shall ask the meaning of the 
Grail and who are served by it. Perceval, the chosen 
knight, on his first coming neglects to ask the question, 

1 Cf. App. III. 2 iij Wolfram's poem it is a (jewel) 



INTRODUCTION. 16 

and because of this failure he endures many years of sorrow 
and vain search before he again finds the Grail castle ; and 
the wounded king waits all these years in disappointment 
and pain. In this first group of legends the Grail and the 
Bleeding Lance have nothing to do with the story of the 
death of Christ. 

The stories of the second group tell how, after the Cruci- 
fixion, Joseph of Arimathaea brought into Britain the cup 
from which Jesus drank the wine of the Last Supper, \ 
and, in the cup, the blood that fell from His wounds. 
In this legend the bleeding lance becomes the spear that 1 
pierced the side of Jesus. The heroes of this story are 
Joseph of Arimatheea and his son Josephes, who bring 
Christianity to Britain. 

In the third group of legends the interest centers in 
the Grail itself, the cup of the Last Supyjer, brought into 
Britain by Joseph of Arimathsea. This cup has been mys- 
teriously lost, yet there are stories of its passing some- 
times before saintly eyes. When Galahad, the maiden 
knight, comes to Arthur's court, a swift, strange light ^ 
passes through the great hall, and all are fed by the 
Grail, which, however, none may see, because it is covered. — 
Then the knights of the Eound Table swear that they 
will travel the world over till they have seen the 
Sangreal. The most significant differences between this 
version and the earlier ones are, first, that Galahad, the 
youthful knight who has never loved a woman, but is 
vowed to the service of the Grail alone, takes the place of 
Perceval; and, second, that many knights instead of one 
or two take part in the search. 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

The author of The Quest of the Holy Grail ^ is a man to 
> whom the ascetic ideal of life represents the highest type 
I of holiness. Around each of the knights of King Arthur's 

court clusters a group of adventures, secular and some- 
j times sinful, but Galahad, whose character this author 
/ seems to have created, walks among the others, and is 
\ not of them, and they know as they look upon him that 

he is chosen to achieve the quest of the Sangreal. 

A. The Perceval Romances. 

" Sir Percival, 
Whom Arthur and his Knighthood calPd The Pure." 

~ Holy Grail, 1. 2. 

In the mediaeval stories the earlier heroes of the Grail 
are Gawain^ and Perceval, and Perceval is chief. 

The most important of the Perceval romances^ are the 
old French poem Perceval le Gallois ou le Conte clu Graal,^ 
by Chrestien de Troyes and his followers, and the old Ger- 
man poem Parzival^ by Wolfram von Eschenbach. A¥olf- 
ram knows and sometimes follows Chrestien 's poem, but 
it is likely that he had also another French source.^ 

Nothing in mediaeval literature is prettier than the story 
of the childhood of Perceval, as told in these two old 
poems. It recalls the wood-bred knight of Greek legend. 
Like Paris with the shepherds on Mount Ida, like Jason 
with Chiron the centaur, Perceval knows nothing of his 
noble birth and heritage. 

1 Newell, Vol. II. p. 261. 2 See App. I. 

3 For the Perceval romances, see VIII. A. 1, 3, 6, 7, below. 

4 VIII. A. 1. 6 VIII. A. 6. e See Nutt, pp. 261-263. 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

The child's father is slain in battle, and his mother hides 
away with her baby in the forest, that he may never hear 
of knights and tourneys, kings and courts, lest he, too, 
come to bear arms and meet death as his father has done.^ 
He wanders alone in the forest ; but his mother warns him 
to fly back to her, if he shall see men covered with iron, 
for they are devils. So the boy goes clad in rustic dress, 
armed only with bow and arrows. He has never seen 
knight nor steed in armor, nor has he heard of the great 
deeds of King Arthur's court. 

The story of Perceval's first meeting with armed knights 
is thus told : " When trees bloom, thickets leaf, and fields 
are green ; when birds sing sweetly at morn and all things 
flame with joy, the son of the Widowed Dame of the Vast 
Solitary Forest rose and saddled his hunter, taking three 
of his darts. ... As he entered the wood, his heart 
bounded within him, for the sake of the pleasant season 
and the songs of the merry birds : because of the sweetness 
of the sovereign time, he gave his hunter the rein, and left 
him free to feed on the fresh sprouting grass. While he, 
who had skill to throw the darts he bore, roved and cast 
them now behind and now before, now alow and now aloft, 
until approached five knights, armed in all their array. 
Their weapons made a loud noise, as fast as they rode, for 
the oaks hurtled against their arms, their mail tinkled, and 
their lances clashed upon their shields. The boy,^ who 
heard them but could not see, wondered and cried : ' By 
my soul ! my mother, my lady, who telleth me true, saith 

1 Le Conte del Graal, ed. Potvin, Vol. II. p. 35, U. 945-950. 

2 Mr. NeweU translates " varlet." 



18 INTRODUCTIOK. 

that devils are wilder than aught in the world : she saith 
so to make me cross myself, that I may be safe from them : 
but I will not, no; instead, I will strike the strongest with 
one of these darts, so that he will not dare come near me, 
nor any of his mates, I trow ! ^ 

" Thus to himself said the boy ; but when the knights 
issued from the wood, with their beautiful shields and 
shining helms, such as never before had he seen, and he 
beheld green and vermilion, gold and azure and silver 
gleam in the sun, he wondered and cried: ^ Ha, Lord God, 
mercy ! These are angels I see ! I did wrong to call 
them devils : my mother, who fableth not, saith that 
naught is so fair as angels, save God who is more beautiful 
than all : here is one so fair that the others own not a tenth 
of his beauty ; my mother saith that one ought to believe 
in God, bow the knee and adore Him ; Him will I worship, 
and the rest who are with Him.' '' ^ So the boy fell on his 
knees, and the knights thought him afraid ; but he demanded 
who they might be ? and w^ould know the name and use of 
every weapon ; and at last he learned that they were knights, 
not angels, and that a great king named Arthur had made 
them knights. Perceval went back to his mother and, in 
/•spite of her tears, would ride away to Carlisle ^^to the king 
' who maketh knights." 

We cannot follow Perceval through his many adventures. 
In his peasant dress he rides into King Arthur's hall and 
awkwardly knocks off the king's hat. He slays a Red 
Knight and will wear his armor, but he does not know 

1 Newell, King Arthur, Vol. II. pp. 3-9. Potvin, Vol. II. pp. 45-57, 11. 
1283-1689. 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

how to undo it till he is taught. He comes to a castle 
where an old knight instructs him in the use of arms, and 
that most necessary of knightly exercises, horsemanship : 
" And the youth began to carry lance and shield, as if his 
days had been spent in quest of strife and adventure ; for it 
came to him naturally ; and when Nature teacheth, and the A 
heart is set on a thing, nothing cometh hard." ^ 

The old knight also teaches the youth maxims of chivalry, 
and, especially, bids him ask fewer questions. Finally he 
makes him knight, and sends him forth to return to his 
mother. Perceval rescues a fair lady, Blanchefleur, from 
her enemies. He loves her, but leaves her to go on his 
search for his mother. 

He never finds his mother, and until ten years later he 
does not know of her death. He comes instead to the 
castle of the Fisher King, and sees the miracle of the 
Grail. " Before the gate was a drawbridge, which he found 
lowered ; he was met by four squires : two disarmed him, 
the third took his horse, while the fourth draped him in 
a scarlet mantle which had never been worn. They led 
him to a gallery, where he waited until the arrival of two 
servants, who conducted him before their lord. 

"They entered a hall as wide as it was long: in the 
centre, on a bed, lay a nobleman, whose hair was blent 
with gray; his cap was made of sable, lined with purple ' 
cloth, and his robe of the same stuff. He reclined, lean- 
ing on his elbow : in front, between four columns of bronze, 
which supported the chimneys, burned a huge fire : four 
hundred men could have found room about the hearth. 

1 Newell, Vol. II. p. 29. Potvin, Vol. II. p. 90, 11. 2()65-2G75. 



( 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

Standing on either side, the servants brought him before 
the host, who greeted him, saying: ^Friend, be not vexed 
that I rise not to receive you.' He answered, ' Sir, in God's 
name, no more : be assured it disturbeth me not.' " ^ 

As they converse, a squire brings to his lord a beautiful 
sword. ^^The pummel Avas of Arabian gold, and the sheath 
gold-work of Venice." The king gives the sword to Per- 
ceval, telling him that it is destined for him. 

" The hall was lit with many candles ; while they spake 
of this and that, entered a squire who bore a lance which 
he held by the middle ; he passed between the fire and 
the bed, so that those that were seated observed the lance 
with its shining glaive ; from the point flowed a drop of 
r blood, which coursed to the bearer's hand. The stranger 
saw the marvel and wondered what it meant; but he be- 
thought himself of the teacher who had cautioned him not 
to be free of speech ; he feared, if he spoke, that it would 
seem rude ; therefore he asked no question. 

^^ Presently came two fair youths, with candlesticks of 

chiselled gold, each having ten candles or more. They 

were accompanied by a damsel who in both hands carried 

a grail ; as she entered, it emitted such luster that the 

candles lost their light, like the stars when riseth the sun 

\ or moon. After her went a second maid bearing a silver 

i tray. The grail was covered with jewels, the richest in the 

M^ world. Like the bearer of the lance these also passed in 

front of the couch, from chamber to chamber; the youth 

saw and dared not ask whom they served with the grail ; 

yet he feared to mistake, for he remembered to have heard 

1 Newell, Vol. II. pp. 56-57. Potvin, Tome II. pp. 142-144, 11. 4228-4290. 



INTRODUCTIOlSr. ' 21 

that one may err by keeping silent too long as well as by \ 
speaking overmuch ; howbeit, he put no question.'' ^ 

The failure of Perceval to ask the question, ^^Whom do "^i 
they serve with the grail?'' is the crisis of the story. If . 
Perceval had asked, the sick king had been healed. Since 
he failed to ask, he must depart from the castle, alone and 
sad, bearing a curse instead of a blessing. ^— " 

The tale of Perceval's return to the Grail castle, when 
he asks the question and releases king and castle from 
the spell of sorrow, is told by the followers of Chrestien. \ 
After the death of his uncle, the Fisher King, Perceval 
becomes Grail King. King Arthur and all his court go 
to the castle, where Perceval is crowned, and where all j 
are fed for a month by the magic Grail. 

Afterward, and here we are reminded of Tennyson's 
^^ Percivale," Perceval retires to a hermitage, taking with j 
him the Grail and lance, and the silver dish. He serves 
God for ten years, being first acolyte, then sub-deacon and 
deacon, and in the fifth year, priest. When he dies, after » 
ten years, the lance and Grail and dish disappear, doubt- ' 
less being taken up into heaven, as no man sees them 
afterward.^ 

This poem of the twelfth-century French poet contains 
little of spiritual symbolism : it tells simply of moral and \ 
of religious duties, the duties that belong to a good knight. : 
Failure in these brings punishment and grief. Because 
he has deserted his mother, and thus caused her death, 
Perceval is not permitted to ask the question of the Grail. 

1 Newell, Vol. II. pp. 58-59. Potvin, Tome II. pp. 144-150, 11. 4291-4432. 

2 Potvin, Tome VI. pp. 152-155, 11, 45267^5362. Nutt, p. 22. 



22 INTRODUCTION. 

Since he does not ask it, he wanders for many years, 
achieving knightly deeds, yet despondent, and because of 
his despondency forgetful of God. He is sent to a holy 
hermit, to whom he makes the sad confession : " Sir, in the 
house of the Fisher King was I, and saw the lance, whereof 
bleedeth the iron; of that drop that gathereth on the 
point of the white glaive, naught I inquired; since that 
time, certes, no^ amends have I made ; and of the Grail I 
saw, I asked not who therewith was served; since then 
so much have I suffered that fain would I have died ; 
because of that sorrow, God I forgot, and never begged 
for mercy, nor have I performed aught whereby I might 
hope that ever mercy should I obtain.''^ 

Chrestien did not finish his tale, and, probably, three 
other writers worked at it. It is, therefore, impossible 
to know how he would have ended it. What he might 
have made of the final visit to the Grail castle is 
perhajjs hinted in the scene with the hermit. It was 
given to a later poet, in another country, to rewrite the 
-7^ whole story ,^ with a deeper sense of love and joy and 
sorrow, with a better understanding of the failure and 
doubt and despair that beset the man who strives to live 
true to human ties and duties, and true to his faith in 
^ God. The Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbacli is brave 
= and loving, but headstrong and foolish. " A brave man, \ 
yet slowly wise.'' ^ Among the things which the ancient ' 
knight Gurnemanz teaches him are " to have true shame ; - 

iNeweU, Vol. II. p. 92. Potvin, Tome II. pp. 258-259, 11. 7716-7760. 

2 Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival. 

^ Parzival, Bk. I. 1. 108. " Er kuene traeliche wis." 



\ 



INTEODUCTIOK. 23 

I 
to pity the poor and fight for their defence ; to be f 

humble; to be either rich or poor; to give to each due' 
honour; to be courteous; not to he so swift to question; 
to make fit answers; to remember mercy in wrath and 
not to slay a conquered foe; to hold women in love 
and honour; to tell the truth; to be faithful in love 
and marriage ! " ^ Parzival's love for his wife, and his 
longing for her in absence, occasion some of the most 
beautiful scenes in the poem. ^ 

Wolfram's Parzival is beautiful as an angel to the eyesH 
of Arthur and all the court; he is commonly sad, at first 
for love and loneliness, later because of his sin ; he for- 
swears the service of God in his discouragement ; he thinks 
that God hates him, and that the thought of a true wife 1 
is man's best guide. Yet, a little later, when his cousin 
Sigune asks him if he has seen the Grail, he answers that 
it has wrought him only sorrow, that he longs for his wife, \ 
yet he knows " a deeper sorrow," and he strives for " a * 
higher prize." ^ 

" Ich habe Freud und Gliick verloren 
Der Oral giebt sorgen mir gemig 
Das Land, ico ich die Krone trug ; 
Liess ich, dazu das schonste Weih. 

:(: 4: , H: 4: H= ^ ^ 

Ich sehne mich nach ihrer ZaicM, 
Um ihre Minne traur ich viel ; 
Doch mehr noch nach dem hohen Ziel. 
Wie ich Monsalvlische mog ersehn 
Und den GraV ^ 

1 Parzival, Bk. III., Weston tr. 2 Bk. VI. « Bk. IX. 

4Simrock, Modern Version, Bk. IX. p. KJG. Bartsch, Vol. II. p. IK). 



24 INTRODUCTION. 

ParzivaPs successful visit to Monsalvasche is beautifully 
told in Wolfram's poem, but the passage is too long to quote. 
The sick king Amfortas lies in such torment that he longs 

,- for death. He cannot die if he looks upon the Grail, for 
it gives him life. At one time he tries to win death by 
keeping his eyes closed, but for very weakness he opens 
them at last. When Parzival comes, the sufferer begs that 
he may be left seven nights and eight days without the 
Grail that he may die. But Parzival, weeping, asks, 
" Now say, where lies the Grail ? " Then he prays and 
asks another question, different from that in Chrestien's 
story — a question that seems wrung from him by pity for 
the unhappy king, " AVhat aileth thee here, mine uncle ? '' ^ 
At these words suddenly, like Lazarus arising from the 

i dead, Amfortas is restored to health. And he bears from 

^ out his bitter pain such youth and beauty that even Parzi- 
val' s seems but as the empty air.^ 

The spiritual beauty of this scene in the old German 

^ poem needs no interpretation. Amfortas suffers, we are 
told, because of an old sin, yet he cannot, if he will, escape 
from the life-giving presence of the Divine. At his healing, 
he becomes more beautiful than even the knight who brings 

/ him rescue, because he has suffered more and longer. " It 
is such skill God knows." ^ 

At the conclusion of Wolfram's poem, Parzival does not 

1 Old Ger. Oeheim^ waz vnrret dir? 

Mod. Ger. Oheim was fehlet dir? 
2Bk. XVI., Weston, pp. 169-170. Simrock, p. 295. Bartsch, Vol. III. 
pp. 174-176. 

3 Old Ger. Got noch kiinste kan genuoc, 

Mod. Ger. Gott kann der Kiinste noch genug. 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

retire to a hermitage, but goes in search of his wife and 
children, and returns to rule his new kingdom of the 
Grail. 

B. Stories of the Early History of the Holy Or ail. 

The oldest form of the story of Joseph of Arimathaea 
seems to be the incomplete French poem of Eobert de 
Borron (VIII. A. 2, a. (1), below). 

Briefly, the story is this : When Jesus was betrayed,/ 
which was in the chamber of the Last Supper, a Jew took 

i 

the cup wherein Christ had made his sacrament and carried \ 
it to Pilate.^ Joseph of Arimathsea, hearing of these things, 
was very angry. He went to Pilate and told him that he 
and his knights had received no pay for long service. Pilate 
offered him whatever he chose to ask, for he had '' de- 
served great gifts.'' Joseph asked only for the body of | 
Jesus, who had been wrongfully hung on the cross. Pilate I 
was astonished that he asked so small a gift, and granted 
it immediately.^ Joseph went to the cross, but the guards 
refused to render up the body of Jesus. Joseph returned ; 
to Pilate, who bade ISTicodemus compel the soldiers to 
obey the order. Pilate also gave to Joseph the cup of j 
the Last Supper.^ As Kicodemus and Joseph washed the j 
body of Jesus, the blood burst afresh from his wounds, and 
Joseph let it flow into the cup and treasured it.* 

1 Le Roman du Saint Graal. Michel, 11. 395-399. 

2 " e/e demant le cors de Jhesu, 

Qu'il ont a tort en crouiz pendu.'' 
^ Pllates mout se merveilla 
Quant si petit don demandaJ" — 11. 455-458. 

3 11.508-511. Ml. 551-572. 



I 



26 INTRODUCTION. 

The angry Jews cast Joseph into prison, where Christ 
appeared to him, bearing the cup ; Joseph was rescued by 
Vespasian, whom he converted; one of the brothers of 
Joseph, Brons, was called the Rich Fisher, and became 
guardian of the Grail, which was to descend to his son's 
son. 

In the later version of this story, Le Grand Saint Graal 
(VIII. A. 5, below), Joseph is represented as taking the 
cup from the chamber of the Last Supper. He demands 
the body of Christ from Pilate, making the same claim as in 
the poem. He is in prison for forty years, is rescued by 
Vespasian, and is commanded by Christ to go forth into 
foreign lands. He bears the cup with him in a wooden 
ark. Joseph's whole company is fed by miracle. He 
comes to Sarras, of which Evelach is king. Josephes, 
the son of Joseph, is made Bishop of Sarras. There 
is a long story of the conversion of the reluctant King 
Evelach. 

The development of the story of the Bleeding Lance, 
and of the future of the Grail is here given very^ully. 
Josephes, hurrying to aid a company of folk who are' 
attacked by a devil, is met by an angel with a lance, and 
smitten through the thigh, because he has left his work of 
baptizing. The spear-head remains in the wound. Later, 
when Josephes brings his converted heathen companions 
to behold the Grail, a voice is heard, saying, " After my 
vengeance, my healing ! " ^ An angel appears and touches 
Josephes' thigh with the lance-shaft. The lance-head 
falls from the wound and drops of blood follow. With 

1 Le Saint Graal, Hucher, Vol. II. p. 309. 



th 

• tf' INTRODUCTION. 27 

this L'looa t.^j^ angel heals the wound. The angel tells 
Josephes tfeat .. ^e lance is a sign of the beginning of new 
wonders ; wh^ii le knights shall be separated from false, i 
and the eartfcl} knighthood become a heavenly one.^ I 
"Great and teri;^' le marvels shall be done of the Holy 
Grail and the lance. The marvels of the Grail shall be 
seen by one man alone; and by the lance but one other 
man shall be struck, acod he a king of Josephes' kin 
he shall be struck through the two thighs, and healed only 
when the Grail wonders are disclosed to the Good Knight.'^ ^ 
f The lance seems here to be identified with the one with *< 
\ which Jesus was pierced on tlie cross. 

The story of the coming to Biitain of the miracles of the 
Grail, of the descendants of Joscf2hes, and of Nascien, the 
converted heathen king, are far too long, too complicated, 
and too contradictory to follow.-^ The important points to 
the student of Malory and Tennyson are that this author 
nJ directly connects the legends of the wounded king,^ of the 
w^P\miracle-working cup, and of the blooding lanc^,^ with the 
passion and death of Christj and that he decht-eg that 
- there shall be a spiritual knighthood more worthy tvan the 
earthly one. There are prophecies of the " Good Rii^^ht 
who shall bring to an end the adventures oi Grand 
tagne.'' His name is given, " Galahad, v 
shall be Lancelot and whose mother the daugln 
Pelleas.'' ' ' 

1 Car les cevaleries tierriennes devenront celestieus. 

— Hucher, Vol. II. p. 311. 

2 Hucher, Vol. II. pp. 298-313. 

3 See Nutt, pp. 52-64. 4 cf. Perceval Romances, above. 
6 Hucher, Vol. III. p. 296. 



28 INTRODUCTION. 

It may be that Kobert de Borron's poeir is oldeWthan even 
Chrestien's Perceval. It may be that they ar^r contempo- 
rary, but independent. The important thing/* to notice is 
that neither Chrestien nor Wolfram connects/the Grail with 
the Last Supper, nor the lance with the de^ath on the cross. 
That connection is most fully and explicitly made by the 
author of Le Grand Saint Graol. 



C. The Story of the Quest of the Holy Grail 

The story which Malory and Tennyson followed is 
neither of the foregoing, "^t is a French prose romance, 
( La Queste del Saint Graa; (VIII. A. 4, below). This ro- 
mance is unquestionably ^ater than the story of Perceval, it 
may be later than the ^arly history of the Holy Cup. It is 
the consummation vjf these two lines of legend, and in a 
sense the outcoue of them. It is the expression of the 
spirit that b'^ught into close relation the knightly life and 
' the religio'-^s life of the Middle Ages. The Parzival of / 
Wolfrar is a knight whose chief service is that of the/ 
Grail, r holy calling; but a part of his duty, as distinctly 
ta^yiit. him, is to be true to all human relations, to be aj 
faithful son, husband, father, soldier, and ruler. Human 
pily and human helpfulness are the flower of his spirit's 
life. One of the dominant ideas of mediaeval religious 
teaching, that of separation from the world as the ideal 
of holiness, finds only slight expression in Wolfram's poem. 
The hermit, Trevisent, has a significant part in the story, 
and King Amfortas, when healed of his long agony, retires 
to a hermitage, but Perceval must fulfill his human duties. 



INTKODUCTION. 29 

To other of the mediaeval writers the idea of the ascetic life 
seemed imperative ; and so it came about that the knight 
who might see the Grail must be not only good and pure, ' 
but separate from the world. He must love and wed no 
woman, he must have no worldly desires. The common 
joys and rewards of life must give place to the one supreme 
purpose to follow the heavenly voice wherever it might I 
call. So Gawain and Perceval, brave and courteous, but 
faulty knights, gave place to Galahad, the sinless knight. \ 
Something of spiritual truth and beauty was gained in this 
latest form of the Grail legend, but something also was 
lost — would have been lost utterly, had not the author of 
The Quest of the Grail made all the knights partakers in the 
search. As if he realized that imperfection must be a part 
of every human action, if human readers are to be interested, 
this old romance writer has made many knights seek that 
which only one may find, and to Lancelot and to Perceval 
are given partial visions of that glory whose consummation 
is for Galahad alone. 
<^The spiritual power of the story, in this its latest medise-"^ 
I val form, is its protest against an ideal of life which ex- W 
alted mere valor into a virtue that excused all vice. Its 
limitation is the monastic blindness to the truth that the * 

Christlike life is one which does battle with human sin, not j 

I . . '^ 

/one which escapes from human ties. 

In spite of all its defects and limitations, the story of j 

Galahad is the cry after holi|tess of a world whose eyes ; 

were blinded by the blood and dust of battle, whose heart 

was tired of the false and gross in human life and love, a 

world which had lost its vision of God and yet remem- 



30 INTRODUCTION. 

bered dimly that ^^ the pure in heart shall see his 
face.'' 

Though much of Tennyson's poem is entirely underived, 
many passages follow more or less closely the narrative as 
contained in Malory's translation of La Queste del Saint 
Oraal. A number of parallel passages are given in the notes 
to this volume, but the scene in which the Grail appears 
in the great hall and the knights swear the vow should 
be carefully compared in the early and later versions. 

^^ And the King and all estates went home unto Camelot, 
and so went to evensong to the great minister, and so after 
upon that to supper, and every knight sat in his own 
place as they were toforehand. Then anon they heard 
cracking and crying of thunder, that them thought the 
place should all to -drive. In the midst of this blast entered 
a sunbeam more clearer by seven times than ever they 
saw day, and all they were alighted of the grace of the 
Holy Ghost. Then began every knight to behold other, and 
either saw other, by their seeming, fairer than ever they 
saw afore. Not for then there was no knight might speak 
one word a great while, and so they looked every man 
on other as they had been dumb. Then there entered 
into the hall the Holy Grail covered with white samite, 
bat there was none might see it, nor who bare it. And 
there was all the hall fulfilled with good odours, and every 
knight had such meats and drinks as he best loved in this 
world. And when the Holy Grail had been borne through 
the hall, then the Holy Vessel departed suddenly, and 
they wist not where it became ; then had they all breath 
to speak. And then the King yielded thankings to God, 



INTRODUCTION. 31 

of His good grace that he had sent them. Certes, said 
the King, we ought to thank our Lord Jesus greatly for 
that he hath shewed us this day at the reverence of this i 
high feast of Pfijit^cast. w Now, said Sir Gawaine, we 
have been served this day of what meats and drinks we 
thought on ; but one thing beguiled us, we might not see 
the Holy Grail, it was so preciously covered. Wherefore, 
I will make here a vow, that to-morn, without longer 
abiding, I shall labour in the quest of the Sangreal, that 
I shall hold me out a twelvemonth and a day, or more if 
need be, and never shall I return again unto the court till 
I have seen it more openly than it hath been seen here; f 
and if I may not speed I shall return again as he that 
may not be against the will of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
When they of the Table Round heard Sir Gawaine say so, 
they arose up, the most part, and made many such avows 
as Sir Gawaine had made. Anon as King Arthur heard 
this he was greatly displeased, for he wist well they might 
not again say their vows. Alas, said King Arthur unto 
Sir Gawaine, ye have well nigh slain me with the avow 
and promise that ye have made ; for through you ye have 
bereft me the fairest fellowship and the truest knighthood 
that ever were seen together in any realm of the world ; 
for when they depart from hence I am sure they all shall 
never meet any more in this world, for they shall die 
many in the quest. And so it forthinketh me a little, for 
I have loved them as well as my life, wherefore it shall \ 
grieve me right sore, the departition of this fellowship: for 
I have had an old custom to have them in my fellowship." ^ 
iMal., m- XIII. Ch. VII. See also 1. 17U, note, below. 



32 INTRODUCTION. 



2. Tennyson's Poem. 



The earliest of Tennyson's Arthurian idylls, Morte 
d'' Arthur, written in 1834, is simply a modern version of 
the old incident as it is told in the Middle English poem, 
Morte Arthur, and in the Morte Darthur of Sir Thomas 
Malory. When The Holy Grail was written, in 1869, the 
poet's plan for the Idylls had grown into a complex epic, 
which, though not entirely allegorical, used the old stories 
^^^^^s parables of modern life, and gave to names of persons 
and places meanings almost as symbolic as those of the 
Pilgrim'' s Progress. 

In regard to the allegorical interpretations of the Idylls 
of the King, Tennyson said, " They have taken my hobby, 
and ridden it too hard, and have explained some things too 
allegorically, although .there is an allegorical, or perhaps 
— rather a parabolic, drift, in the poem. Of course Camelot, 
for instance, a city of shadowy palaces, is everywhere sym- 
bolic of the gradual growth of human beliefs and institu- 
\ tions, and of the spiritual development of man. Yet there 
is no single fact or incident in the Idylls, however seem- 
ingly mystical, which cannot be explained as without any 
mystery or allegory whatever. ... I hate to be tied 
down to say 'this means that,'' because the thought 
within the image is much more than any one interpre- 
^ tation."^ 

In the allegory of the spiritual life, as Tennyson con- 
ceived it, the poem of The Holy Grail holds highest place. 
It is fortunate that it follows the old stories but slightly, 
1 Memoir, Vol. II. Ch. V. pp. 126-127. 



INTRODUCTION. 33 

thus giving less occasion for allegorical interpretation of 
simple narrative. A large part of the poem has no antece- 
dent, and the underived portions are often the most beauti- 
ful. Tennyson has altered the import of the old romance, 
in order to express his conviction that higher than Gala- 
had's purpose is that of the King, who strives to bring the^ 
holy life within reach of all his subjects. 

" The Holy Grail shows us the strife between superstitionpl 
which is a sensual religion, and true faith, which is spirit- \ 
ual. This is in some respects the richest and most splendid 
of the Idylls, but it is also, by reason of its theme, the most 
confused. Out of the mystical twilight which envelops 
the action this truth emerges : that those knights who 
thought of the Grail only as an external wonder, a miracle 
which they fain would see because others had seen it, ' f ol- | 
lowed wandering fires ' ; while those to whom it became 
^a symbol of inward purity and grace, like Galahad and I 
Percivale, and even the dull, honest, simple-minded Bors 
and the sin-tormented Lancelot, finally attained unto the 
vision. But the King, who remained at home and kept 
the plain path of daily duty, is the real hero of the Idyll, 
though he bore no part in the quest.'' ^ 

Tennyson's own words on this subject are given by his 
son : " At twenty-four I meant to write an epic or a drama 
of King Arthur ; and I thought that I should take twenty 
years about the work. They will now say that I have 
been forty years about it. The Holy Grail is one of the 
most imaginative of my poems. I have expressed there | 
my strong feeling as to the Reality of the Unseen. The ' 
1 Van Dyke, The Poetry of Tennyson^ p. 184. 



( 



34 INTRODUCTION. 

end, when the king speaks of his work and of his visions, 
is intended to be the summing up of all in the highest 
note by the highest of human men. These three lines 
in Arthur's speech are the (spiritually) central lines of the 
IdyUs: — 

' In moments when he feels he cannot die, 

And knows himself no vision to himself, 

Nor the High God a vision.' " i 

3. Wagner's Parsifal. 

It is interesting to compare the nineteenth-century story 
of Galahad as told in Tennyson's Holy Grail with the nine- 
teenth-century story of Perceval as told in Wagner's great 
poetic opera Parsifal. There is no space in this little 
book to tell the story, or to comment on the teaching of 
Parsifal, biit one or two points of comparison may be 
noted. 

Parsifal is the wood-bred, unlessoned youth of ^he oldest 
romances. He is the chosen and the stainless one who 
shall heal the sick King; and he is the savior who shall 
deliver the Grail kingdom from Klingsor, the worker of 
evil. Wagner's Parsifal is pure as is Tennyson's Galahad, 
and is as untouched by the evil in the world ; but he is 
a greater and profounder character because he fuliills his 
mission of healing, not by reason of his purity alone, but 
also and chiefly by reason of his share in the temptations 
and the suffering of those whom he saves. Wagner's poem 
is strong precisely where Tennyson's is weak, even as 
Wolfram's Parzival is strong where the French Queste 

1 Memoir, Vol. II. Ch. IV. pp. 89-90. 



INTRODUCTION. 35 

is weak. In the ancient and in the modern stories, Gala- 
had moves apart from pain and sin and failure; in the 
ancient and in the modern stories Parzival comes ''by paths 
of wandering and suffering '' and is made wise by " fel- 
low-pain.'' Tennyson, conscious of this weakness in the 
old romance, makes Galahad subordinate to Arthur. 
Wagner conceives of a hero who shall possess both holi- j 
ness and helpfuhiess. The purity of the mediaeval Gala- 
had and the humanity of the mediaeval Parzival meet 
in him who is the helper of men. ** 

*' Du — Reiner 
mitleidvoll Duldender, 
heilthatvoll Wissender ! " 1 



II. BIOGKAPHICAL NOTE. 

" Half-way between Horncastle and Spilsby, in a land of 
quiet villages, large fields, gray hillsides, and noble, tall 
towered churches, on the lower slope of a Lincolnshire wold, 
the pastoral hamlet of Somersby nestles, embosomed in 
trees. Here, on the 6th of August, 1809, was born, in his 
father's rectory, Alfred Tennyson. He was the fourth of 
twelve children, eight sons and four daughters, most of 
them more or less true poets." ^ This village rectory was 
Tennyson's home during childhood, boyhood, and early 
manhood. Even after the father's death, in 1831, the 

1'' Thou — Spotless ! 
Sufferer of fellow-pain, 
Learner of the healing deed ! " 

— Parsifal, Act III., Forman's Tr. 
2 Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Memoir by his Son, Vol. I. Ch. I. p. 2. 



36 INTRODUCTION. 

family lived on in the old home till 1837. The associ- 
ations of the rectory, and of the surrounding country, find 
frequent expression in the poems of Tennyson. His son 
writes : ^ "In 1892 I visited the old home, and when I re- 
turned, told my father that the trees had grown up obscur- 
ing the view from the Eectory, and that the house itself 
looked very desolate. All he answered was, ^Poor little 
place ! ' He always spoke of it with an affectionate remem- 
brance ; of the woodbine that climbed into the bay window 
of his nursery ; of the vaulted Gothic dining-room with 
stained glass windows, making, my uncle Charles Turner 
used to say, ^butterfly souls' on the walls; of the beautiful 
stone chimney piece carved by his father; of the pleasant 
little drawing-room lined with book-shelves, and furnished 
with yellow curtains, sofas, and chairs, and looking out on 
the lawn. This lawn was overshadowed on one side by 
wych-elms, and on the other by larch and sycamore trees. 
Here, my father said, he made his early song 'A spirit 
haunts the year's last hours.' " The brook at the foot of the 
lawn " haunted him through life " ; and the orchard was 'i a 
sunny little spot that awoke in his mind pleasant memories." 
^' ' How often,' he said, ' have I risen in the early dawn to 
see the golden globes lying in the dewy grass among those 
apple trees.' He delighted, too, to recall the rare rich- 
ness of the bowery lanes ; the ancient Norman cross stand- 
ing in the churchyard, close to the door of the quaint little 
church ; the wooded hollow of Holywell ; the cold springs 
flowing from under the sandstone rocks; the flowers, the 
mosses, and the ferns." ^ This last clause is characteristic 

^Memoir, Vol. I. Ch. I. pp. 2-3. 'Ubid., p. 4. 




INTRODUCTION. 37 

of the poet who had eyes always for minute as well as for 
great things of beauty ; for the shining cobwebs on the furze 
bushes as well as for the great plain with its " crowded 
farms and lessening towers '' sweeping away to the sea. It 
was in childhood that Tennyson learned to know and love 
the sea, for summer holidays were spent on the Lincoln- 
shire coast.^ The peaceful inland country about his home, 
and the sights and sounds of the wild North Sea coast, 
ministered from his earliest years to Tennyson's love for 
beauty. He might have said with Wordsworth, " fair seed- 
time had my soul.'^ 

Alfred Tennyson began to write verses at about the age 
of eight. ^ In 1827 a little book called Poems by Two 
Brothers was published at Louth. The brothers were 
Alfred Tennyson and his brother Charles.^ Lord Hallam 
Tennyson says, ^^When these poems were written my 
Uncle Charles was between sixteen and eighteen, and my 
father between fifteen and seventeen. '^ * The early poetry 
of Tennyson, as seen in this little volume, shows no remark- 
able promise, and the same may be said of the most of 
the early fragments first printed in the Memoir. 

In February, 1828, Alfred Tennyson and his brother 
Charles entered Trinity College, Cambridge, " where their 
elder brother, Frederick, was already a distinguished 
scholar." ^ The story of Tennyson's life at Cambridge is an 
ideal chapter in literary biography. His physical strength 
and beauty, his fine scholarship and noble character, made 

1 Memoir, Vol. I. Ch. I. p. 20. 4 Memoir, Ch. I. p. 22. 

2 Ibid., p. 11. 6 JMd., Ch. II. p. 33. 
^ Charles Tennyson Turner, 



38 INTKODUCTION. 

him a notable figure among a group of brilliant fellow- 
students.^ 

Most of the members of this little college circle became 
in later life distinguished in letters, theology, or science. 
One is known to all readers of English poetry as the 
Friend of In Memoriam. Arthur Hallam,^ the dearest of 
all Tennyson's Cambridge associates, and, it may be, the 
most gifted, died at Vienna in 1833, in his twenty-third 
year. What his friendship and his loss were to Tenny- 
son is written in the elegy. In Memoriam^ a series of lyrics 
composed during the years following Arthur Hallam's death. 
In Memoriam was not completed and published until 1850. 
To many of Tennyson's readers it will be always his most 
beautiful and most significant work. Tennyson's first vol- 
ume. Poems, Chiefly Lyrical, was published in 1830,^ but the 
influence of the new poet dates from the next volume,^ of 
1832 (dated 1833), which contained The Lady of Shalott, 
The Miller^ s Daughter, The Palace of Art, (Enone, The Lotus 
Eaters, etc. Though this volume of 1832 was ^^only par- 
tially successful," some of the poems contained in it be- 
came and remained favorites with lovers of true poetry. 

With the exception of The Lovefs Tale, privately printed 
in 1833, Tennyson published no volume for ten years. But 
the decade between 1832 and 1842 is perhaps the most 
important in his literary life. Through sorrow and re- 
sponsibility the poet's sympathies had become deeper and 
more inclusive, and he grew constantly in mastery of his 
art.^ 

1 Memoir, Vol. I. Ch. II. pp. 35-36. 4 n^ia.^ Ch. V. 

2 Ibid., Cb. IV, 3 Ibid., Ch. III. 5 Ibid., Cb. V. p, 122. 



INTRODUCTION. 39 

Most of In MemoTiam was written in these years, and 
they mark also the beginning of poems founded upon 
the Arthurian legends.^ The exquisite Lady of Shalott is, 
probably, the earliest of the series ; the Morte d' Arthur was 
written in 1834, and Sir Galahad and Sir Launcelot and 
Queen Guinevere are contained in the volume of 1842. In 
1837 the Tennyson family moved from the Somersby home. 
Until 1840 they lived at High Beach, in Epping Forest ; in 
1840 at Tunbridge Wells ; and in 1841 removed to Baxley, 
near Maidstone.^ About this time, 1837, Tennyson became 
engaged to Emily Sell wood, but ^^they were not married 
until 1850, when his poems brought him a competency.'' ^ 

No less than five editions of the poems of 1842 were 
published before 1850, and in 1847 The Princess appeared.^ 

The middle of the century marks a happy height in the 
poet's career. In June of this year he married ^ the lady 
whom he had long loved, and he published In Memorlam.^ 
In November he was appointed Poet Laureate of England,' 
to succeed Wordsworth, who had died in the preceding 
April. 

In the first years after their marriage the Tennysons 
lived at Twickenham, and here Hallam, the present Lord 
Tennyson, was born. In 1853 Tennyson took a house on 
the Isle of Wight, Farringford, which was to be his home 
for forty years, though after 1869 he divided his time 
between this and a house which he built at Aldworth, 
Hazlemere. It was at Aldworth that he died. 

1 Memoir, Vol. I., Ch. V. p. 142. 5 Ibid., Ch. XV. p. 328. 

2 Ibid., Ch. VI. pp. 149-150. 6 ijyid., Ch. XIV. p. 297. 

3 Ibid., Ch. VI. p. 150. 4 iijia., p. xviii. ^ Ibid., Ch. XV. p. :m. 



40 INTROBITCTION. 

In 1850 Tennyson had become not only Poet Laureate, 
but, in reality, the most loved and honored of living English 
poets. Especially he held the hearts of the young men of 
England, and by them he was read, quoted, and imitated. 
Canon Dixon writes of Oxford in 1853 : " It is difficult 
to the present generation to understand the Tennysonian 
enthusiasm which then prevailed both in Oxford and the 
world. All reading men were Tennysonians ; all sets 
of reading men talked poetry. Poetry was the thing, and 
it was felt with justice that this was due to Tennyson. 
Tennyson had invented a new poetry, a new poetic Eng- 
lish. His use of words was new, and every piece that he 
wrote was a conquest of a new region. This lasted till 
Maud, in 1855, which was his last poem that mattered.'^ ^ 

It is impossible to notice the poems of these years. 
Maud was published in 1855. Between 1857 and 1885 the 
Idylls of the King grew into permanent and completed 
form, and Enoch Arden and other poems of English con- 
temporary life were written. To the last decade of this 
period belong the dramas : Queen Mary, in 1875, Harold, 
in 1876, and Becket, in 1884. From time to time also 
appeared books of ballads and lyrics, ending with- the 
volume. The Death of (Enone, Akhar^s Dream and Other 
Poems, published October 28, 1892, just three weeks after 
the death of the poet.^ 

In 1884 Alfred Tennyson was made Baron Tennyson of 
Aldworth and Farringford. In 1873 and in 1874 Tennyson 
had refused the offer of a baronetcy.^ On accepting the title 

1 Mackail, Life of William Morris^ Vol. I. p. 44. 

2 Memoir, Vol. I. p. xxi. 3 Hyta.^ Vol. II. Ch. VI. pp. 145, 161. 



INTKODUCTION. 41 

conferred in 1884, he said to his son, '' By Gladstone's 
advice I have consented to take the peerage, but for my 
own part I shall regret my simple name all my life.'' ^ 

A brief note, which must be chiefly dates and names, can 
give no impression of a long and beautiful life, such as 
was Tennyson's. The events of his life are his attain- 
ments in knowledge, in art, in spiritual insight. These 
may be traced in his poems ; and, if one would know also 
of his surroundings, of his happy family life, and of his 
many friendships, one must read of these things in the 
detailed Memoir by his Son, 

There is a beautiful unity between the man's life as por- 
trayed in the memoir, and the poet's work as found in the 
poems. Tennyson is the close student, impatient of any 
inaccuracy, the careful workman, unwilling to leave a 
single line until he has perfected it, the lover of visible 
beauty, and, even more earnestly, of spiritual beauty, the 
seeker for the truth that underlies all mysteries. Though 
he fights many battles with doubt, he does not lose his faith, 
and the late lyrics echo the most triumphant strains of In 
Memoriam, 

In youth he learns : — 

*' To feel, altho' no tongue can prove, 
That every cloud, that spreads above 
And veileth love, itself is love.'' 2 

In middle life he sings : — 

'^ Love is and was my Lord and King, 
And in his presence I attend 
To hear the tidings of my friend 
Which every hour his couriers bring. 

1 Memoir, Vol. II. Ch. XV. p. 300. — 2 Two Voices, Globe, p. 35. 



42 INTRODUCTION. 

*' Love is and was my King and Lord, 
And will be, tho' as yet I keep 
Within his court on earth, and sleep 
Encompassed by his faithful guard, 

^' And hear at times a sentinel 

Who moves about from place to place, 
And whispers to the worlds of space. 
In the deep night that all is well.'' ^ 

In old age he prays : — 

"let not Reason fail me, nor the sod 
Draw from my death thy living flower and grass. 
Before I learn that Love, which is, and was 
My Father, and my Brother, and my God ! " 2 

Tennyson, all his life, had shunned publicity. So far 
as was possible, he withdrew into the society of few and 
near friends. But at his death on the 6th of October, 
1892, all England gave him mourning and honor, and he 
was buried in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey, 
^^next to Eobert Browning and in front of the Chaucer 
monument.'' ^ 

III. CHRONOLOGY OF TENNYSON'S LIFE. 

1808. August 6. Birth. Somersby, Lincohishire. 
1816-1820. School. Louth, Lincohishire. 

1828-1831. Trinity College, Cambridge. Friendship with Arthur 
Ilallam. 

1830. Poems^ Chiefly Lyrical. 

1831. Return to Somersby. Death of his father. 

"•^ 1 In Memoriam.^xxyi, Globe, p. 277. 
**> 2 Doubt and Prayer, Globe, p. 867. 
^Memoir, Vol. II. Oh. XXIII. p. 431. 



INTRODUCTION. 43 

1832. Poerns. (Dated 1833.) 

1833. September 15. Death of Arthur Hallam at Vienna. 
1832-1842. Composition of many poems ; publication of very few. 
1842. Poems^ two volumes. 

1850. Marriage to Emily Sellwood. Publication of In Memoviam. 

Appointment as Poet Laureate. 
1853. Home at Farringford, Isle of Wight. 
1884. Peerage. 

1802. October 6. Death at Aid worth. 
1892. October 12. Burial in Westminster Abbey. 



IV. CHRONOLOGY OF THE PUBLICATION OF 
TENNYSON'S POEMS. 

See Memoir^ pp. xviii-xxii for complete list of published works. 

1827. Poems by Two Brothers. 

1830. Poems, Chiefly Lyrical. 

1832. Poems. 

1812. Poems. 

1847. The Princess. 

1850. In Memoriam. 

1852. Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. 

1854. Charge of the Light Brigade, published in The Examiner, 

December 9, 1854. 

1855. 3iaud. 

1859. Idylls of the King. 

1864. Enoch Arden. 

869. The Holy Grail. 

1871. The Last Tournament. 

1872. Gareth and Lynette. 

1875. Queen Mary. 

1876. Harold. 

1880. Ballads, and Other Poems. 

1884. Becket. 

1885. Tiresias, and Other Poems. 
1889. Demeter, and Other Poems. 

1892. The Death of (Enone, and other Poems. 

1894. The Complete Single Volume Edition of the Works, with Last 
Alterations, etc. London. Macmillan and Company, 



44 INTRODUCTION. 



V. CHRONOLOGY OF THE ARTHURIAN POEMS. 

In the 1832 volume Tlie Lady of Shalott. 
1834. Morte d' Arthur, written, Mem., Vol. I. Ch. V. 

In the 1842 volume. Sir Galahad, Sir Lancelot and Queen 

Guinevere^ Morte d'' Arthur. 
1857. Enid and Nimue {Nimue afterward became Vivien and Enid 

was divided into two idylls) . 
1859. Enid. Merlin and Vivien, Elaine, Guinevere. 
1869. The Holy Grail, The Coming of Arthur, Pelleas and Ettarre, 

The Passing of Arthxir. {The Passing of Arthur is altered 

from the Morte d'' Arthur of 1834.) 

1871. The Last Tournament. 

1872. Gareth and Lynette. 
1885. Balin and Balan. 

The permanent order of the Idylls of the King became : — 
1862. Dedication. 
1869. The Coming of Arthur, 

The Bound Table : — 

1872. Gareth and Lynette. 
1857. The Marriage of Geraint, 
1857. Geraint and Enid. 

1885. Balin and Balan. 

1857. Merlin and Vivien. 

1859. Lancelot and Elaine. 

1869. The Holy Grail. 

1869. Pelleas and Ettarre. 

1871. The Last Tournament. 

1859. Guinevere. 

1869. The Passing of Arthur. 

1873. To the Queen. 

Cf . Jones, Growth of the Idylls of the King, p. 46, note. 



INTRODUCTION. 45 

VI. SUMMARY OF THE STORY AS TOLD IN SIR 
THOMAS MALORY'S MORTE DARTHUR. 

The story of the Holy Grail is contained in 
Malory's Morte Darthur, Bks. XIII.-XVIL 

The few passages which Tennyson follows are 
quoted in the notes and introduction^ but a brief 
summary of Malory's narrative may be given here. 
It will be seen that Tennyson has drawn upon the 
older story only at rare intervals. His account of 
the adventures of the knights, especially of Sir Bors, 
Sir Perceval, and Sir Galahad, is almost wholly new. 
Mai., At the vigil of the Pentecost all the fellowships 

Ch. I. of the Round Table was gathered in the hall at / 
Camelot. A fair gentlewoman entered asking for 
Sir Launcelot, whom she saluted on behalf of 
King Pelles. 

She begged Launcelot to ride away with her into 

a forest to an abbey of nuns. Here the young 

Galahad was presented to Sir Launcelot, who made 

Ch. II. him knight. Galahad would not go with Launcelot 

to King Arthur. 

On Launcelot's return to court, golden letters I 
were found written on the vacant seat at the 
Round Table, the Siege Perilous, declaring that 
this seat should be filled four hundred and - 
fifty-four years after the Passion of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, that is, at that same feast of Pente- 
cost. 

A stone was seen floating upon the river with 



46 INTRODUCTION. 

' a sword thrust into it, and the pommel thereof 
was wrought with " subtle letters of gold." Sir 
Ch. III. Gawaine and Sir Perceval sought to draw the 
sword, but might not move it. 

The king and all the knights went into the 

court to dinner. All the seats were filled, save 

t only the Siege Perilous. An old man entered, 

bringing a young knight clad in red armor. The 

Ch. IV. youth, who was Galahad, was seated in the Siege 

,Perilous, and all knew him to be the chosen knight 

Ch. V. who should achieve the Sangreal. Galahad drew 

the sword from the stone. A damsel appeared, who 

/ declared that Launcelot was no longer the best 

^ knight of the world, but that now there was one 

better than he. Then she told the king that this 

<day should the Sangreal appear in his house and 
feed all the fellowship of the Round Table. 
Ch. VI. The king appointed a tournament that he might 

/ prove Sir Galahad. Sir Galahad shattered many 
I knights, but not Sir Launcelot nor Sir Perceval. 
Ch. VII. The queen desired to see Galahad, and knew 

— . him as Sir Launcelot's son. 

Cf. p.30. / At supper the Ploly Grail entered the hall, and 

I the company was fed of it. It was so covered 

that none might see it. The knights vowed that 

they would ride in quest of it, and the king was 

Ch. VIII. I displeased and saddened. One hundred and fifty 

\ knights put on their helms and departed amid 

weeping and great sorrow. 

Ch. IX. Then the story tells of Sir Galahad, who had as 



INTRODUCTION. 47 

yet no shield. After four days he reached a White 
Abbey. Here he learned of a white shield bear-\ 
ing a red cross. This shield might be safely worn 
only by the worthiest knight in the world. After 
the shield had caused the death of King Bag- 
demagus, it was given to Sir Galahad. f 

Ch. X. A white knight told Sir Galahad how the shield 

was made for King Evelake in the days of Joseph , 

Ch. XI. of Aramathie, and that the red cross was made of 
the blood of Joseph himself, who prophesied that 
no man should bear the shield safely until the 
time of the good knight Galahad. 

Then the White Knight and Galahad returned 
',to the Abbey. 

Ch. XII. Sir Galahad knighted Melias, a squire, who 

Ch. XIII. begged to ride with him on his quest. Sir Melias 
was wounded, and Sir Galahad avenged him. 

Ch. XIV. Sir Galahad delivered a king's daughter op- \ 

Ch. XV. pressed in her castle by evil knights. 

Ch. XVI. Then the story leaves Sir Galahad, and tells of 
Sir Gawaine. Sir Gawaine rode many journeys. 
At last he came to the White Abbey where Sir 
Galahad had the white shield, thence to the abbey 
where Sir Melias lay sick. 

Gawaine met with Sir Gareth and Sir Uwaine. 
They came to the castle of maidens where the 
three knights slew seven brethren. They lost the 
way that Sir Galahad rode, and they parted from 
each other. Sir Gawaine came to an hermitage. 
The hermit told him that he wa^ evil of life, and 



48 INTRODUCTION. 

must do penance. '' Nay/' said Sir Gawaine, " I 
may do no penance, for we knights adventurous 
oft suffer great woe and pain.'' 
Ch.xvii. The tale returns to Sir Galahad. 

Sir Galahad met with Sir Launcelot and Sir 
Perceval, but they knew him not. Sir Galahad 
jousted with them and overthrew them both. He 
rode away, and they, knowing him, tried to fol- 
low him, but he rode out of their sight. 

Sir Launcelot rode in a wild forest as adventure 
led him. He found a stony cross and a chapel waste 
and broken. He laid him down to sleep upon his 
shield before the cross. Half sleeping and waking, 



^^ Sir Launcelot saw a sick man borne on a litter. 

/The Holy Grail was borne before the sick man and 
I healed him. When the sick man was healed and 
armed, he rode away on Sir Launcelot's horse. 
Ch. XIX. Sir Launcelot waked, and a voice bade him de- 
part from this holy place. He came to an hermit- 
age, and confessed and was shriven and made 
Ch. XX. great sorrow. 

Bk. xiy. The story tells how Sir Perceval came to a re- 
Ch. I. cluse and asked counsel, and how she told him that 
y/ she was his aunt. She told him of Sir Galahad, 
I and that Merlin made the Siege Perilous, in the 
Ch. II. || which Sir Galahad sat at meat on Whitsunday. 
Ch. III. Then Sir Perceval rode till evensong, and came 
to a monastery where was an old sick king, Eve- 
lake. The king had prayed that he might not die 
till the good knight be come who should achieve 



i 



INTRODUCTION. 49 

the Sangrael. He had lived three hundred win- 
ters. 

Ch. IV. Sir Perceval fought with twenty knights. His 
horse was slain, but he was delivered by Sir 
Galahad. 

Ch. V. A woman gave to Sir Perceval a black horse 

Ch. VI. which was a fiend. 

Sir Perceval slew a lion that fought with a 
serpent, and the lion followed Sir Perceval. 

Ch. VII. Sir Perceval dreamed a marvelous dream. He 
came to a ship, and an old man told him the mean- 
ing of his dream, which was to warn him of a battle 
which should befall him. 

Ch. VIII. A damsel of great beauty asked help of Sir 

Ch. IX. Perceval. He promised her help and proffered her 
his love, but he was saved from her wiles by the 

Ch. X. red cross on the pommel of his sword. Sir Perce- 
val for penance smote himself through the thigh. 
He knew that the damsel was the master fiend 
of hell. 

Sir Perceval entered into a ship and departed. 

Bk. XV. Of Sir Launcelot. 

Ch. I. The hermit gave to Sir Launcelot an horse, an 

helm, and a sword. He came to a chapel and 
found an old hermit richly clothed in white. 
Within the chapel lay an old man dead. The liv- 
ing hermit conjured a fiend, who told how the dead 
hermit was not lost, but saved. 



50 - INTRODUCTION. 

Ch. II. Sir Launcelot told the living hermit of his quest. 

The hermit told Sir Launcelot that because of his 
sin he should have no power to see the Holy Grail, 
and he gave to Sir Launcelot the hair shirt of 
the dead man. Sir Launcelot rode into a forest, 
where he met a gentlewoman, who told him that 
he should find good lodging in the morning. 

Ch. III. Sir Launcelot fell asleep by a wayside cross, and 
had a vision. In the morning he rode on, and 
smote down the knight who had before taken his 
horse. 

Ch. IV. The hermit expounded Sir Launcelot's vision, 

and told him that Sir Galahad was his son. 

Ch. V. Six- Launcelot saw two companies of knights 

fighting. He went to the aid of the weaker party 
and did marvelous deeds, but was at last faint of 
fighting. 

He sorrowed much that he was shamed in the 

Ch. VI. fight. He came to a chapel where was a recluse, 
and he told her how it befell him at the tourna- 
/ ment. She told him how he had fought on the 
side of the earthly knights, and against the 
heavenly, because he was of evil faith and poor 
belief. 



\ 



Sir Launcelot rode on and was met by a black 
knight, Avho smote his horse to the earth and 
disappeared. 



INTRODUCTION. 61 

Bk. XVI. Of Sir Gawaine and Sir Bors. 

Ch. I. Sir Gawaine rode from Whitsuntide until Mich= 

aelmas, and found none adventure that pleased 
him. He met Sir Ector de Maris and said to 
him, " I am nigh weary of this quest." Sir Ector 
and Sir Gawaine rode more than eight days, and 
found an old chapel where each had a marvelous 
dream. 

Ch. II. Then a voice came to them both which said, 

" Knights full of evil faith and of poor belief, ye 

may not come to the adventures of the SangreaL" 

Sir Gawaine met and slew Sir Uwaine, who was 

also in quest of the Sangreal. 

Ch. III. Sir Ector and Sir Gawaine came to an hermitage. 

The hermit expounded their visions, and said, 

Ch. IV. "Knights of poor faith and of wicked belief, these / 
three things failed, — charity, abstinence, and truth, j 
— therefore ye may not attain that high adventure 
of the Sangreal." 

Ch.V. They departed, and rode long without any 

adventure. 

Ch. VI. ^ii' Bors departed from Camelot, and met a good 

man who advised him to eat only bread and water j 
till he should sit at the table of the Sangreal. 

He saw a bird which fed its little ones out of its 
own blood and so died, and he knew well that it 
was a sign. 

Ch. Vil. Sir Bors lodged with a lady, and became her 

Ch. VIII. champion. He dreamed two dreams. 



52 



INTRODUCTION. 



Ch. IX. 



Ch. X. 
Ch. XI. 



Ch. XII. 



Ch. XIII. 



Ch. XIV. 



Ch. XV. 



Ch. XVI. 



Ch.XVII. 



He fought with Sir Pridam and overthrew him, 
and brought back to the hxdy her estates. He 
met Sir Lionel, his brother, naked and beaten, and 
bound upon a horse. Sir Bors left his brother in 
order to rescue a lady, and afterward was told that 
Sir Lionel had been slain. 

A false priest interpreted to Sir Bors his dreams, 
and led him to a tower where were knights and 
ladies, one the fairest lady he had ever seen. 

The fair lady tempted Sir Bors, but he crossed 
himself, and he heard a great noise and a great 
cry, as though all the fiends of hell had been about 
him ; and therewith he saw neither tower nor lady 
nor chapel. 

He came to an abbey, and heard the true sig- 
nification of his dreams, and that the false priest 
was a fiend, and that Sir Lionel was yet alive. 

Sir Bors met Sir Lionel, who nearly slew him 
for anger. 

Sir Lionel slew a hermit who would have saved 
Sir Bors. 

Sir Colgrevance fought for Sir Bors, and was 
slain by Sir Lionel. 

Sir Bors prayed Sir Lionel to leave this battle, 
but at last was forced to defend himself. There 
came a voice which charged Sir Bors to touch him 
not. Then a cloud alit between them, and they 
were sore afraid, and fell to the earth in a swoon. 
They forgave each other, and Sir Bors rode on his 
way and came to an abbey nigh the sea. 



i 



INTRODUCTION. 53 

In his sleep there came a voice to him, and bade 
him go to the sea. When he came to the strand, 
he found a ship covered with white samite. The 
ship went flying, but it was so dark that Sir Bors 
knew no man. Wlien he awaked, he saw Sir 
Perceval and they were glad. Then said Sir 
Perceval, " We lack nothing but Galahad the good \ 

Bk. XVII. knight.'' 

(Cf. Bk. When Galahad had rescued Perceval from the 

jy ' '' twenty knights, he went into a wide forest wiiere 
he rode many journeys. He passed by a castle 
where was a tournament, and among the knights, 
Sir Ector and Sir Gawaine. Sir Galahad smote 
down Sir Gawaine, and rode away. Sir Ector said 
to Sir Gawaine, ^^Me seemeth your quest is done." 
" And yours is not done," said Gawaine, " but mine 
is done, I shall seek no further." 

And Galahad rode till he was benighted in an 

Ch. II. hermitage. A gentlewoman came and begged 
Galahad to follow her. So they rode and came to 
a castle, and, after he had ate and slept, they rode 
to the sea, and there they found the ship where 
were Bors and Perceval. The ship left the land, 
and the}'- met another ship. In the end of the ship 
they found written, ^* Thou man which shall enter 
into this ship, beware thou be steadfast in belief, 

Ch. III. for I am Faith." The gentlewoman told them that 
she was Sir Perceval's sister. They entered into 

Ch. IV. the ship, and found a fair bed, and a sword rich 
a-nd fair. The sword had a scabbard of serpent's 



54 INTRODUCTION. 

skin, and thereon were letters of gold and silver. 
Ch. V. Sir Perceval's sister told them the story of the 
Ch. VII. sword and scabbard, and of the making of the ship, 

and she bade Galahad grip the sword, and she 

girded him therewith. Then they went from that 

ship into the other. 

They came to the coast of Scotland and to 
Ch. VIII. a castle, where they were attacked by many 

knights. 
Ch. IX. ^ They came into a waste forest, and they saw a 

white hart which four lions led, and this signified 

Our Lord and the four Evangelists. 
Ch. X. ~ They fought with knights of a strange castle. 
Ch. XI. Sir Perceval's sister gave her blood for the heal- 

ing of the lady of the castle, and died, but the 

lady was healed. 

Sir PercevaPs sister was placed in a barge 

covered with black silk, and the wind arose and 

drove the barge from the land. 

Sir Bors rode away to succor a wounded 

knight. 
Ch. XII. Sir Galahad and Sir Perceval came to a chapel 

where were tombs of many maidens, all of whom 

had been slain for the dead lady's sake. 
The two knights parted from each other. 
Sir Launcelot came to the sea, and found a ship 
Ch. XIII. without sail or oar. He entered and slept till day ; 

and when he awoke he found a gentlewoman dead, 

the which was Sir Perceval's sister. 

Galahad came to the ship, and there was great 



1 



INTRODUCTION. 55 

joy between them. They dwelt in the ship half 

a year, and had many adventures. 
Ch. XIV. A white knight came and bade Galahad follow 

him into the forest. 

The wind arose and drove Launcelot more than 

a month through the sea, till he arrived before the 
Ch. XV. Castle of Carbonek. Sir Launcelot saw the Holy 
Ch. XVI. Grail covered with red samite. He was smitten 

down as by a breath of lire, and lay for four and 

twenty days as a dead man. 

He awoke, and was told that he should see no 

more of the Sangreal than he had seen. 

Sir Launcelot was brought before King Pelles. 
Sir Ector came to the castle, but was told that 

he might not enter because of the Sangreal. 
Ch. XVII. Sir Launcelot returned to King Arthur's court, 

where he found Sir Gawaine, Sir Ector, and Sir 

Lionel. 
Ch. Sir Galahad came to the castle of King Mord- 

rains, who, though he had long been blind, saw 

him and blessed him and died. 

Sir Galahad buried King Mordrains, as a king 

ought to be, and came into a perilous forest, where 

was the burning well. He came to the abbey 

where Launcelot had been. 
Ch. XIX. Sir Galahad met Sir Perceval and Sir Bors, and 
Ch. XX. all came to Carbonek to King Pelles, who knew 

them. 

Joseph of Arimathaea, who had been dead three 

hundred years, appeared to Galahad and his fellows. 



56 INTRODUCTIOK. 

/ The kniglits were fed of the SangreaL 

At the Sacrament Christ himself appeared, and 

, said to Galahad : " And now hast thou seen that 

thou most desired to see, but yet hast thou not 

seen it so openly as thou shalt see it in the city 

! of Sarras, in the spiritual place. Therefore thou 

i must go hence, and bear with thee this Holy Ves- 

\ sel ; for this night it shall depart from the realm 

of Logris, that it shall never be seen more here." 

Ch. XXI. Galahad healed the maimed king with the blood 

^'^ from the bleeding spear; Galahad, Perceval, and 

Bors came again to their ship, and found therein 

the Sangreal covered with red samite. 

They came to the city of Sarras, and the King 
of Sarras cast them into prison. 
Ch. XXII. r ^n prison they were fed for a year by the San- 
/greal. The wicked king repented, and died, and 
Galahad was made king. Galahad died and his 
, soul was borne to heaven by angels, and a hand 
was seen to bear away the Sangreal and the 
^jj?>spear. '' Sithen was there never any man so 
{ hardy to say that he had seen the Sangreal." 
Qtj Sir Perceval and Sir Bors made great sorrow for 

Sir Galahad. 

Sir Perceval entered an hermitage, and lived for 
a year and two months a full holy life, and then 
passed out of this world. 

Sir Bors returned to England, to King Arthur 
and to Sir Launcelot. 



INTRODUCTIOK. 57 



;n:L analysis of tennyson's poem. 



\aXu\ 



Lines 1-44, Introduction. Almost entirely Tennyson's. 

1^. /ll. 45-67. Origin of the Grail. Cf. R. de Borron's Joseph of 
Aramathie and Le Grand Saint Graal (I. I.E., above). 

^. 11. 08-165. Sir Percivale's sister and Sir Galahad. Cf. Malory, 
Bk. XVII. Chs. II. -XI. Tennyson's story is here very little depend- 
ent xa^yd the older versions. 

*f 11. 166-360. The vow of the knights and their departure. Cf. 
Malory, Bk. XIII. Chs. I.-VIIL, especially VII.-VIII. Cf. VI. 
above, and notes on 11. 179 and 350, below. 

J/^11. 361-457. Percivale's adventures. Cf. Malory ,'*Bk. XIV. 
Chs. III.-X. This passage is almost wholly new in Tennyson's 
story. /^ 

Q/ 11. 458-539. Percivale and Galahad : Galahad's achievement 
of the quest. Cf. Malory, Bk. XVII. Chs. XXII. -XXIII. Abnost 
en tireb^xenny son's creation. 

^ 11. 540-631. Incident in Percivale's story. Not closely paral- 
leled in the old stories. 

8Xni. 632-707. The story of Sir Bors. Cf. Malory, Bk. XVI. 
Chs. VI.-XVII. There is almost no likeness between Malory's and 
Tennyson's treatment of the story of Sir Bors. Cf. VI., above, 
pp. 51-5r7. 

^11. 708-737. The return of the knights. Cf. Malory, Bk. XVII. 
Ch. X)m. 

]gX 11. 738-747. The story of Gawaine. Cf. Malory, Bk. XVI. 

V^Mtr 11.748-849. The story of Lancelot. Cf. Malorf, Bk. XIII. 
^i^_Chs. Xyil.-XX. ;^Bk. XV.; Bk. XVII. Chs. XIIL-XVII. y ,^^ ^ /^^^//vl/ 
/ yfie<^ 11. 850-9 l6T The address of the king. Tennyson's invention. ^"^ 

VIII. BIBLIOGRAPHY 

A. The chief romances of the Holy Grail, see Alfred Nutt : Studies 
in the Legend of the Holy Gi^ail^ pp. 1-4. 
1. Perceval le Gallois on Le Conte del Graal. A French poem 
of over 60,000 verses, of which over 10,000 are by Chrestien 
de Troyes. 



'Chs. I.-V. ; Bk. XVIII. Ch. I. Tennyson's Gawaine is very unli 
(i/ MaloryV. ..-See App. I., below. ^ - -^^''\.(.f 



^' 



58 INTRODUCTION. 

see Potvin : Le Conte del Graal. 6 volumes. Mons. 
1866-1871. Vols. II.-VI. 
"■"^^ see Newell : King Arthur and the 2 able Bound. 
Vol. II. pp. 1-97. Translation of portions of Chrestien's 
poem. 

2. Joseph d'^Arimathie. 

a. A fragmentary poem, by Robert de Borron. 

(1) French. 

see Michel : Le Boman du St. Graal. Bordeaux, 

1841. 
see Furnivall : Seynt Graal. 2 vols. London, 1861- 

1863. Vol. I. App. 

(2) Middle English T'ranslation : Joseph of Arimathie. 

see Skeat, W. W., an alliterative poem written 
about 1380. E. E. Text Sc, 14. 1871. 
h. Prose version. French. 

see Hucher, E. : Le Saint Graal. Le Mans. 1875- 
1878. 3 vols. Vol. I. pp. 1-28. 

3. Perceval. French prose romance. 

see Hucher (above). Vol. I. pp. 415-505. Called 
Tlie Didot Perceval. 

4. La Queste del Saint Graal. 
a. French prose romance. 

see Furnivall : J . La Queste del Saint Graal. 

London, 1864. 
see Malory : 3Iorte Darthiir, Bks. XIII.-XVII. 
see Sommer, H. O. : Morte Darthur of Syr T. 

Malory, Vol. III. pp. 206-220. 
see Newell : King Arthur (above), vol. II. pp. 153- 

197. 
see Nutt, Studies (above), pp. 38-52. 
h. A Welsh version. 

see Williams, R. : Y Seint Grael. London, 1876. 

5. Le Grand Saint Graal. 

a. French prose. This is the Joseph of Arhnathsea story. 
Cf . 2 above. 

see Hucher : Le Saint Graal (above). Vols. II. -III. 

see Furnivall : Seynt Graal (above, 2). 

see Nutt: Studies (above), pp. 52-68. Summary. 
h. A metrical English version, by Henry Lonelich. 

see E. E. Text Sc. Ex. Ser., 20, 24, 28, 30. 



INTRODUCTIOlSr. 69 

6. Parzival. German poem by Wolfram von Eschenbach, early 

13th century, 
see Old German version, eel. by Karl Lachmann, 

1854. 
see Old German version, ed. by Bartsch. 
see Modern German, Karl Simrock. 
see English translation, J. Weston, Parsival. A 

knightly epic, etc. Nutt. London, 1894. 

7. Perceval le Gallols. French prose romance. 

see Potvin (above) : Conle del Graal. Vol. I. 

see Evans, Sebastian : llie High History of the 

Holy Grail. Temple Classic Series. Dent & Co. 

London, 1898. 2 vols. English prose translation. 

Note. — There are two Perceval romances which do not tell the story of 
the Holy Grail. These are : (1) Peredurah Kvraioc, a Welsh tale, 
(see Lady Guest's Mahinogion, Vol. I.) ; and (2) a Middle English 
metrical romance, Perceval of Galles. See The Thornton 
Romances, edited by J. O. Halliwell. Camden Sc. London, 1844. 

B. Tennyson. 

Tennyson, Hallam, Lord : Alfred Lord Tennyson, A 3Iemoir 

by his Son. The Macmillan Company. 1897. 2 vols. 
Same, in The Life and Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson. In 12 

volumes. London. Macmillan Company. 1899. Vols. 

L-IV. 
Waugh, Arthur : Alfred Lord Tennyson, a Study of his Life 

and Work. Macmillan and Company. 189(). 
Brooke, Stopford A. : Lord Tennyson, his Art and Belation to 

Modern LAfe. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1894. ^ 
Van Dyke, Henry : The Poetry of Tennyson. Charles Scrib- 

ner's Sons. Ne^w York, 1891. 
Rawnsley, H. D. : Memories of the Tennysons. J. MacLehose. 

Glasgow, 1900. 

C. The Idylls of the King. 

Tennyson, Hallam : Memoir (above), Vol. I. Chs. VL XX. ; 

Vol. II. Chs. IV. {The Holy Grail), V. 
Brooke, S. A.: Tennyson (above), Cli. IV. i)p. 128-182; 

Ch. X. (The Holy Grail, pp. 319-33()).' - 
Van Dyke, Henry : The Poetry of Tennyson (above). The 

Idylls of the King, pp. 131-197. 
Waugh, Arthur: Alfred Lord Tennyson (above), Ch. VIII, 



^ 



60 INTRODUCTION. 

Gurteen, S. Humphreys : The Arthurian Epic. G. P. Putnam's 
Sons. 1895. Comments on Tennyson., pp. 21, 29, 88, 89, 
327, 328, 344-346. The Holy Grail, pp. 263-292. 

Jones, Richard : The Growth of the Idylls of the King. J. B. 
Lippincott Company. Philadelphia, 1895. 

Macaulay, G. C. : Tennyson, the Holy Grail. Macmillan and 
Company. 

Littledale, Harold : JEssays on Lord Tennyson^ s Idylls of the 
King. Macmillan. London, 1893. Ch. XII. The Holy Grail. 

Maccallum, M. W. : Tennyson^ s Idylls of the King Siwd Arthurian 
Story from the Sixteenth Century. J. MacLehose. Glas- 
gow, 1894. 

Rolfe, W. J. : The Idylls of the King, in twelve books, edited 
with notes. Houghton and Mifflin. Boston, 1896. 
References for the Allegory of the Idylls. 

Memoir, Vol. II. Ch. V. 

Brooke, S. A. : Tennyson, especially pp. 258-260. 

Van Dyke : The Poetry of Tennyson, pp. 169-178. 

D. Morte Barthur. Editions of Malory's 3Iorte Darthur. 

Sommer, H. Oskar : Le Morte Darthur, by Syr Thomas 
Malory. In 3 volumes. The original edition of Caxton, 
1485. D. Nutt. London, 1891. 

*Gollancz, Israel : Temple Classics Series. 4 vols. J. W. Dent. 
London, 1898. 

Wright, Thomas. From the text of 1634. 3 vols. Smith. 
London, 1858. 

*Strachey, Sir Edward. Globe Edition. Macmillan. 

Lanier, Sidney : The Boys^ King Arthur. Scribner's. 1880. 

*Mead, William Edward. Selections from Sir Thomas Malory's 
Morte Darthur, with Introductions, etc. Ginn and Com- 
pany. Athenaeum Press Company Series. 1897. 

Rhys, Ernest. Malory's History of King Arthur and The 
Quest of the Holy Grail. From the Morte Darthur some- 
what modernized, Camelot Series. Walter Scott. London, 
1887. 

Le Morte Darthur of Sir T. Malory. Introduction by Professor 
Rhys, illu,strations by Aubrey Beardsley. London, 1893- 
1894. 2 vols. 

(Books marked * are inexpensive and within the reach of schools, 
teachers, or students.) 



INTRODUCTIOK. 61 

*Malory's History of King Arthur and The Knights of the Round 
Table. London and New York, 1893. (Vol. XLIX. of 
Lubbock's One Hundred Best Books'.) 

*Malory's Le Morte D^ Arthur. Selections, edited with Intro- 
duction, Notes, and Glossary by A. T. Martin. 1897. 
(Macmillan's English Classics.) 

E. Early Versions of the Arthurian Story, referred to in the notes. 

Nennius^ Historia Britonum, tr. by Giles. Geoffrey of 
Monmouth^ Historia Regum BritannicTe, tr. by Giles. 

Le Bornan de Merlin or the early History of King Arthur, ed. 
from the French. Sominer, H. O. 1894. Privately 
printed. 

Middle English version of same, Merlin. E. E. Text Sc. Nos. 
10, 24, m. Ed. by Wheatley. 

Le Boman de Brut^ by Robert Wace, about 1155. French 
poem. 2 vols. Rouen, 1836. 

The Brut of Layamon. Middle English, about 1205, poem, 
translation, and expansion of Wace's Brut. 3 vols. Ed. 
by Sir F. Madden. 1847. (Running translation in foot- 
notes.) 

F. General. 

Paris, Gaston : Histoire litteraire de la France., commence par 
des Beligieux Benedictins de la congregation de Saint Maur., 
et continue par des Memhres de VListitut. Tome XXX. 
Paris, 1888, pp. 1-45. 
La Litterature Franraise an Moyen Age., 1890, Ch. IV. 
^^ Newell, W. W. : The Legend of the Holy Grail, Jour. American 
Folklore. Nos. XXXVIL-XXXIX., 1897; XL., 1898. 
King Arthur and the Bound Table. 2 vols. Houghton, Mifflin 
& Couipany. 1897. 
-*^Nutt, Alfred : Studies in the Legend of the Holy Grail. 
Weston, Jessie : The Legend of Sir Gawain. 
Madden : Sir Gaimyne. 1839. 
■^ Rhys, J. : IVie Arthurian Legend. Oxford, 1891. 
Guest, Lady Charlotte : "The 3Ial)inogion. 
'=^ Skeat, W. W. : Joseph of Arimathie, E. ¥j. Text Sc. 44. Intro- 
duction. 
Harper, George McLean: The Legend of the Holy Grail. Dis- 
sertation. Mod. Lang. Association of America. New Series. 
Vol. L No. 1, 1893. Baltimore. 



62 INTRODUCTION. 

Hawker, Stephen : The Quest of the San Graal. Poem, 1864. 

Weston, J. L. : Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. A Middle 
English Arthurian Romance retold in Modern Prose. 

Thomas, M. Carey : Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight. Dis- 
sertation. Ziirich, 1883. 

Willis, R. : 21ie Architectural Histonj of Glastonbury Abbey, 
1866. 

Brooke, S. A. : English Literature from the Beginning to the 
Norman Conquest., 1809. 

Heinzel, R. : Uber die Franzbsischen Gralromane. Denk- 
schriften der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. 
Phil. Hist. Classe. Bd. 40. 1892. 

Wagner, R. : Parsifal, in Gesammelte Scluiften nnd Dichtungen. 
Leipzig, 188.^,. Bd. 10, pp. 417-491. 

Forman, A. : Parsifal, in English verse. London, 1899. Pri- 
vately printed. 



THE HOLY GRAIL. 



THE HOLY GRAIL. 



The text is that of the London Macmillan edition, 1899. The works of 
Alfred Lord Tennyson, in twelve volumes. Vol. IV. pp. 156-190. 



From noiseful arms, and acts of prowess done 
In tournament or tilt, Sir Percivale, 
Whom Arthur and his knighthood calPd The Pure, . 
-Had pass'd into the silent life of prayer, 
Praise, fast, and alms ; and leaving for the cowl 5 

The helmet in an abbey far away 
From Camelot, there, and not long after, died. 

And one, a fellow-monk among the rest, 
Ambrosius, loved him much beyond the rest. 
And honoured him, and wrought into his heart 10 

A way by love that waken'd love within, 
\To answer that which came : and as they Bat 
Beneath a world-old yew-tree, darkening half 
The cloisters, on a giistful April morn 

That puff'd the swaying branches into smoke 15 

Above them, ere the summer when he died. 
The monk Ambrosius questioned Percivale : 

^^0 brother, I have seen this yew-tree smoke. 
Spring after spring, for half a hundred years : 
For never have I known the world without, 20 

Nor ever stray 'd beyond the pale : but thee, 
When first thou earnest — such a courtesy v 
Spake thro' the limbs and in the voice — I knew 

65 



/ 



66 THE HOLY GKAIL. 

For one of those who eat in Arthur's hall ; 
For good ye are and bad, and like to coins, 25 

Some true, some light, but every one of you 
IStamp'd with the image of the King ; and now 
•Tell me, what drove thee from the Table Round, 
]\ty brother ? was it earthly passion crost ? " 

# 
" Nay,'' said the knight ; " for no such passion mine. 30 

But the sweet vision of the Holy Grail 
Drove me from all vainglories, rivalries. 
And earthly heats that spring and sparkle out 
Among us in the jousts, while women watch y 

Who wins, who falls ; and waste the spiritual strength 35 
Within US, better offer'd up to Heaven.'' 

To whom the monk : " Tlie Holy Grail ! — I trust 
We are green in Heaven's eyes ; but here too much 
We moulder — as to things without I mean — 
Yet one of your own knights, a guest of ours, 40 

Told us of this in our refectory. 
But spake with such a sadness and so low 
We heard not half of what he said. What is it ? 
The phantom of a cup that comes and goes ? " 



" Nay, monk ! what phantom ? " answer'd Percivale. 45 
I '' The cup, the cup itself, from which our Lord 
I Drank at the last sad supper with his own. 

This, from the blessed land of Aromat — 

After the day of darkness, when the dead 

Went wandering o'er Moriali — the good saint, 50 

Arimathtean Joseph, journeying brought 
/ To Glastonbury, where the winter thorn 
1 Blossoms at Christmas, mindful of our Lord. 

And there awhile it bode ; and if a man 
' Could touch or see it, he was heal'd at once, 55 

By faith, of all his ills. But then the times 



THE HOLY GKAIL. 67 

Grew to such evil that the holy cup 

Was caught away to Heaven, and disappeared.^' 

To whom the monk : " From our old books I know 
That Joseph came of old to Glastonbury, 60 

And there the heathen Prince, Arviragus, 
Gave him an isle of marsh whereon to build ; 
And there he built with wattles from the marsh 
A little lonely church in days of yore. 

For so they say, these books of ours, but seem 65 

Mute of this miracle, far as I have read. 
But who fir^ saw the holy thing to-day ? '' 

—————— I ■ ■ mil I ii M i M iiiii. ■■ J ill II. I I I ^j l, I ■ ii w i 

^^A woman," answer'd Percivale, "a nun. 
And one no further off in blood from me 
Than sister ; and if ever holy maid 70 

With knees of adoration wore the stone, 
A holy maid ; tho' never maiden glow'd, 
But that was in her earlier maidenhood. 
With such a fervent flame of human love, ->^ 
Which being rudely blunted, glanced and shot 75 

Only to holy things ; to prayer and praise 
She gave herself, to fast and alms. And yet, 
Nun as she was, the scandal of the Court, 
Sin against Arthur and the Table Round, 
And the strange sound of an adulterous race, 80 

Across the iron grating of her cell 
Beat, and she pray'd and fasted all the more. 

" And he to whom she told her sins, or what ^ 
Her all but utter whiteness held for sin, —' 
A man well-nigh a hundred winters old, 85 

Spake often with her of the Holy Grail, 
A legend handed down thro' five or six, ' 
And each of these a hundred winters old. 
From our Lord's time. And when King Arthur made 



68 THE HOLY GRAIL. 

His Table Eound^ and all men's hearts became . 90 

Clean for a season, surely he had thought 

That now the Holy Grail would come again ; 

But sin broke out. Ah, Christ, that it would come, 

And heal the world of all their -wickedness ! 

' Father ! ' ask'd the maiden, ' might it come 95 

To me by prayer and fasting ? ' ^ Nay,' said he, 

^ I know not, for thy heart is pure as snow.' 

And so she pray'd and fasted, till the sun 

Shone, and the wind blew, thro' her, and I thought 

She might have risen and floated when I saw her. 100 



# 



" For on a day she sent to speak with me. 
And when she came to speak, behold her eyes 
Beyond my knowing of them, beautiful, 
Beyond all knowing of them, wonderful. 
Beautiful in the light of holiness. n 4 \ 105 

And ' my brother Percivale,' she said, 
^ Sw^eet brother, I have seen the Holy Grail : 
For, waked at dead of night, I heard a sound 
As of a silver horn from o'er the hills 

Blown, and I thought, '' It is not Arthur's use 110 

To hunt by moonlight; " and the slender sound 

^ As from a distance beyond distance grew 
Coming upon me — never harp nor horn, 
Nor aught we blow with breath, or touch with hand, 
Was like that music as it came ; and then 115 

Stream'd thro' my cell a cold and silver beam. 
And down the long beam stole the Holy Grail, 
Rose-red with beatings in it, as if alive. 
Till all the white walls of my cell were dyed 

( With rosy colours leaping on the wall ; 120 

And then the music faded, and the Grail 
Past, and the beam decay 'd, and from the walls 

C The rosy quiverings, died into the night. 

^ lb ^ 



THE HOLY GRAIL. 69 

So now the Holy Thing is here again 

Among us, brother, fast thou too and pray, 125 

And tell thy brother knights to fast and pray, ' 

That so perchance the vision may be seen 

By thee and those, and all the world be heaPd.' 

" Then leaving the pale nun, I spake of this ; 

To all men; and myself fasted and pray'd 130 

Always, and many among us many a week 
Fasted and pray'd even to the uttermost, 
Expectant of the wonder that would be. 

" And one there was among us, ever moved 
Among us in white armour, Galahad. 135 

' God make thee good as thou art beautiful,' i 
Said Arthur, when he dubb'd him knight ; and none, 
In so young youth, was ever made a knight 
Till Galahad ; and this Galahad, when he heard 
My sister's vision, filPd me with amaze ; 140 

His eyes became so like her own, they seem'd 
Piers, and himself her brother more than I. ' - ■ • 

'' Sister or brother none had he ; but some 
CalFd him a son of Lancelot, and some said 
Begotten by enchantment — chatterers they, 145 

Like birds of passage piping up and down. 
That gape for flies — we know not whence they come 
For when was Lancelot wanderirigly lewd ? 

"But she, the wan sweet maiden, shore away 
Clean from her forehead all that wealth of hair 150 

Which made a silken mat-work for her feet ; 
And out of this she plaited broad and long 
A strong sword-belt, and wove with silver thread 
And crimson in the belt a strange device, 
A crimson grail within a silver beam ; \ 155 



70 THE HOLY GKAIL. 

And saw the bright boy-knight, and bound it on him, 

Saying, ^My knight, myTome, my knight of heaven, 

thou, my love, whose love is one with mine, 

I, maiden, round thee, maiden, bind my belt. 

Go forth, for thou shalt see what I have seen, 160 

And break thro' all, till one will crown thee king 

Far in the spiritual city : ' and as she spake 

She sent the deathless passion in her eyes 

Thro' him, and made him hers, and laid her mind 

On him, and he believed in her belief. 165 



V 



I 



^ " Then came a year of miracle : brother. 

In our great hall there stood a vacant chair, 

Fashion'd by Merlin ere he past away. 

And carven with strange figures ; and in and out 

The figures, like a serpent, ran a scroll 170 

Of letters in a tongue no man could read. 

And Merlin calPd it ' The Siege perilous,' 

Perilous for good and ill ; ^ for there,' he said, 

^No man could sit but he should lose himself:' 

And once by misadvertence Merlin sat 175 

In his own chair, and so was lost ; but he, 

Galahad, when he heard of Merlin's doom. 

Cried, ' If I lose myseW, I save myself ! ' 

" Then on a summer night it came to pass, 
While the great banquet lay along the hall, 180 

That Galahad would sit down in Merlin's chair. 

" And all at once, as there we sat, we heard 
A cracking and a riving of the roofs. 
And rending, and a blast, and overhead 
Thunder, and in the thunder was a cry. 185 

And in the blast there smote along the hall 
A beam of light seven times more clear than day: 
And down the long beam stole the Holy Grail 



THE HOLY GRAIL. 71 

All over covered with a luminous cloud, 

And none might see who bare it, and it past. 190 

But every knight beheld his fellow's face 

As in a glory, and all the knights arose, 

And staring each at other like dumb men 

Stood, till I found a voice and sware a vow. 

" I sware a vow before them all, that I, 195 

Because I had not seen the Grail, would ride 
A twelvemonth and a day in quest of it. 
Until I found and saw it, as the nun 
My sister saw it ; and Galahad swarF the vow, 
And good Sir Bors, our Lancelot's cousin, sware, 200 

And Lancelot sware, and many among the knights. 
And Gawain sware, and louder than the rest." 

Then spake the monk Ambrosius, asking him, 
" What said the King ? Did Arthur take the vow ? " 

" Nay, for my lord," said Percivale, " the King, 205 

Was not in hall : for early that same day. 
Scaped thro' a cavern from a bandit hold. 
An outraged maiden sprang into the hall 
Crying on help : for all her shining hair 
Was smear'd with earth, and either milky arm 210 

Eed-rent with hooks of bramble, and all she wore 
Torn as a sail that leaves the rope is torn 
In tempest : so the King arose and went 
To smoke the scandalous hive of those wild bees 
That made such honey in his realm. Howbeit 215 

Some little of this marvel he too saAv, 
Returning o'er the plain that then began 
To darken under Camelot ; whence the King 
Look'd up, calling aloud, ' Lo, there ! the roofs 
Of our great hall are roU'd in thunder-smoke ! 220 



72 THE HOLY GRAIL. 

Pray Heaven, they be not smitten by the bolt.' 
For dear to Arthur was that hall of ours, 
As having there so oft with all his knights 
Feasted, and as the stateliest under heaven. 

^ "0 brother, had you known our mighty hall, 225 

\ Which Merlin built for Arthur long ago ! 

For all the sacred mount of Camelot, 

And all the dim rich city, roof by roof, 

Tower after tower, spire beyond spire, 

By grove, and garden-lawn, and rushing brook, 230 

Climbs to the mighty hall that Merlin built. 

And four great zones of sculpture, set betwixt 

With many a mystic symbol, gird the hall : 

And in the lowest beasts are slaying men. 

And in the second men are slaying beasts, 235 

And on the third are warriors, perfect men. 

And on the fourth are men with growing wings. 

And over all one statue in the mould 

Of Arthur, made by Merlin, with a crown. 

And peak'd wings pointed to the Northern Star. 240 

And eastward fronts the statue, and the crown 

And both the wings are made of gold, and flame 
/ At sunrise till the people in far fields, 
\ Wasted so often by the heathen hordes. 

Behold it, crying, ' We have still a King.' 245 

•^ And, brother, had you known our hall within. 
Broader and higher than any in all the lands ! 
Where twelve great windows blazon Arthur's wars, 

/ And all the light that falls upon the board 

V Streams thro' the twelve great battles of our King. 250 

Nay, one there is, and at the eastern end, 
Wealthy with wandering lines of mount and mere, 
Where Arthur finds the brand Excalibur. 



THE HOLY GRAIL. 73 

And also one to the west, and counter to it, 

And blank : and who shall blazon it ? when and how ? — 255 

there, perchance, when all our wars are done, 
The brand Excalibur will be cast away. 

"So to this hall full quickly rode the King, 
In horror lest the work by Merlin wrought, 
Dreamlike, should on the sudden vanish, wrapt 260 

In unremorseful folds of rolling fire. 
And in he rode and up I glanced, and saw 
The golden dragon sparkling over all : 

And many of those who burnt the hold, their arms 264 

Hack'd and their foreheads grimed with smoke, and sear'd, 
Followed, and in among bright faces, ours. 
Full of the vision, prest : and then the King 
Spake to me, being nearest, ' Percivale,' 
(Because the hall was all in tumult — some 
Vowing, and some protesting), ' what is this ? ' 270 

" brother, when I told him what had chanced, 
My sister's vision, and the rest, his face 
Darkened, as I have seen it more than once. 
When some brave deed seem'd to be done in vain, 
Darkeu ; and ' Woe is me, my knights,' he cried, 275 

' Had I been here, ye had not sworn the vow.' 
Bold was mine answer, ' Had thyself been here. 
My King, thou wouldst have sworn.' ' Yea, yea,' said he, 
' Art thou so bold and hast not seen the Grail ? ' 

" ' Nay, lord, I heard the sound, I saw the light, 280 

But since I did not see the Holy Thing, 

1 sware a vow to follow it till I saw.' 

" Then when he ask'd us, knight by knight, if any 
Had seen it, all their answers were as one : 
^Nay, lord, and therefore have we sworn our vows.' 285 



74 THE HOLY GKAIL. 

" ' Lo now/ said Arthur, ' have ye seen a cloud ? 
What go ye into the wilderness to see ? ' 

" Then Galahad on the sudden, and in a voice 
Shrilling along the hall to Arthur calPd, 
^But I, Sir Arthur, saw the Holy Grail, 290 

1 saw the Holy Grail and heard a cry — 
•• O Galahad, and Galahad, follow me.''' 

" ^ Ah, Galahad, Galahad,' said the King, ^for such 
As thou art^is the vision, not for these. 

The holy nun and thou have seen a sign — 295 

Holier is none, my Percivale, than she — 
T A sign to maim this Order which I made. 
But ye, that follow but the leader's bell ' 
(Brother, the King was hard upon his knights) 
' Taliessin is our fullest. throat of song, 300 

And one hath sung and all the dumb will sing. 
Lancelot is Lancelot, and hath overborne 
Five knights at once, and every younger knight, 
Unproven, holds himself as Lancelot, 

Till overborne by one, he learns — and ye, 305 

What are ye ? Galahads ? — no, nor Percivales ' 
(For thus it pleased the King to range me close 
After Sir Galahad) ; ' nay,' said he, ' but men 
With strength and will to right the wrong'd, of power 
To lay the sudden heads of violence flat, 310 

Knights that in twelve great battles splash'd and dyed 
-The strong White Horse in his own heathen blood — 
J)ut one hath seen, and all the blind will see. 
Go, since your vows are sacred, being made: 
Yet — for ye know the cries of all my realm 315 

Bass thro' this hall — how often, my knights. 
Your places being vacant at my side. 
This chance of noble deeds will come and go 
Unchallenged, while ye follow wandering fires 






I 



THE HOLY GRAIL. 75 

Lost in the quagmire ! Many of you, yea most, 320 

Return no more : ye think I show myself 

Too dark a prophet : come now, let us meet 

The morrow morn once more in one full field 

Of gracious pastime, that once more the King, 

Before ye leave him for this Quest, may count 325 

The yet-unbroken strength of all his knights, 

Rejoicing in that Order which he made.' 

" So when the sun broke next from under ground. 
All the great table of our Arthur closed 
And clash'd in such a tourney and so full, 330 

So many lances broken — never yet 
Had Oamelot seen the like, since Arthur came ; 
And I myself and Galahad, for a strength 
AVas in us from the vision, overthrew 

So many knights that all the people cried, 335 

And almost burst the barriers in their heat. 
Shouting, ^ Sir Galahad and Sir Percivale ! ' 

" But when the next day brake from under ground — 
brother, had you known our Camelot, 
Built by old kings, age after age, so old 3i0 

The King himself had fears that it would fall. 
So strange, and rich, and dim ; for where the roofs 
Totter'd toward each other in the sky. 
Met foreheads all along the street of those 
Who watch'd us pass ; and lower, and where the long 345 
Rich galleries, lady-laden, weighed the necks 
Of dragons clinging to the crazy walls. 
Thicker than drops from thunder, showers of flowers 
Fell as we past; and men and boys astride 
On wyvern, lion, dragon, griffin, swan, 350 

At all the corners, named us each by name, 
Calling ' God speed ! ' but in the ways below 
The knights and ladies wept, and rich and poor 



76 



THE HOLY GRAIL, 



Wept, and the King himself could hardly speak 
For grief, and all in middle street the Queen, 
Who rode by Lancelot, waiPd and shriek'd aloud, 
' This madness has come on us for our sins.' 
So to the Gate of the three Queens we came. 
Where Arthur's wars are render'd mystically. 
And thence departed every one his way. 



355 



360 



"And I was lifted up in heart, and thought 
Of all my late-shown prowess in the lists. 
How my strong lance had beaten down the knights. 
So many and famous names ; and never yet 
Had Heaven appear'd so blue, nor earth so green, 365 

For all my blood danced in me, and I knew 
That I should light upon the Holy Grail. 

"Thereafter, the dark warning of our King, 
That most of us would follow wandering fires. 
Came like a driving gloom across my mind. 370 

Then every evil word I had spoken once, 
And every evil thought I had thought of old. 
And every evil deed I ever did, 
Awoke and cried, ' This Quest is not for thee.' 
And lifting up mine eyes, I found myself 375 

Alone, and in a land of sand and thorns, 
And I was thirsty even unto death ; 
And I, too, cried, ' This Quest is not for thee.' 

" And on I rode, and when I thought my thirst 
Would slay me, saw deep lawns, and then a brook, 380 

With one sharp rapid, where the crisping white 
Play'd ever back upon the sloping wave, 
And took both ear and eye ; and o'er the brook 
Were apple-trees, and apples by the brook 
Fallen, and on the lawns. ' I will rest here,' 385 

I said, ' I am not worthy of the Quest ; ' ]j 



THE HOLY GRAIL. 77 

But even while I drank the brook, and ate 

The goodly apples, all these things at once 

Fell into dust, and I was left alone. 

And thirsting, in a land of sand and thorns. 390 

" And then behold a woman at a door 
Spinning ; and fair the house whereby she sat, 
And kind the woman's eyes and innocent. 
And all her bearing gracious ; and she rose 
Opening her arms to meet me, as who should say, 395 

^ Eest here ; ' but when I touch'd her, lo ! she, too, 
^ Fell into dust and nothing, and the house 
Became no better than a broken shed, 
And in it a dead babe ; and also this 
Fell into dust, and I was left alone. 400 

" And on I rode, and greater was my thirst. 
--Then flash'd a yellow gleam across the world. 

And where it smote the plowshare in the field, 

The plowman left his plowing, and fell down 

Before it ; where it glittered on her pail, 405 

The milkmaid left her milking, and fell down 

Before it, and I knew not why, but thought 

^The sun is rising,' tho' the sun had risen. 

Then was I ware of one that on me moved 

In golden armour with a crown of gold 410 

About a casque all jewels ; and his horse 

In golden armour jewelPd everywhere : 

And on the splendour came, flashing me blind; 

And seem'd to me the Lord of all the world. 

Being so huge. But when I thought he meant 415 

To crush me, moving on me, lo ! he, too, 

Open'd his arms to embrace me as he came, 

And up I went and touched him, and he, too, 
I Fell into dust, and I was left alone 

And wearying in a land of sand and thorns. 420 



78 . THE HOTA^ GRAIL. 

" And I rode on and found a mighty hill, 
And on the top, a city walPd : the spires 
Prick'd with incredible pinnacles into heaven. 
And by the gateway stirr'd a crowd ; and these 
Cried to me climbing, * Welcome, Percivale ! 425 

Thou mightiest and thou purest among men ! ' 
And glad was I and clomb, but found at top 
No man, nor any voice. And thence I pa^ 
Far thro' a ruinous city, and I saw 

That man had once dwelt there ; but there I found 430 

Only one man of an exceeding age. 
^ Where is that goodly company,' said I, 
' That so cried out upon me ? ' and he had 
Scarce any voice to answer, and yet gasp'd, 
' Whence and what art thou ? ' and even as he spoke 435 

' Fell into dust, and disappear'd, and I 
Was left alone once more, and cried in grief, 
' Lo, if I find the Holy Grail itself 
And touch it, it will crumble into dust.' 

'' And thence I dropt into a lowly vale, 440 

Low as the hill was high, and where the vale 
Was lowest, found a chapel, and thereby 
A holy hermit in a hermitage. 
To whom I told my phantoms, and he said : 

. ^^ ^ son, thou hast not true humility, 445 

' The highest virtue, mother of them all ; 

For when the Lord of all things made Himself 

Naked of glory for His mortal change, 

" Take thou my robe," she said, '' for all is thine," 

And all her form shone forth with sudden light 450 

So that the angels were amazed, and she 

Follow'd Him down, and like a flying star 

Led on the gray-hair'd wisdom of the east ; 

But her thou hast not known : for what is this 



THE HOLY GRAIL. 79 

Thou thoughtest of thy prowess and thy sins ? 455 

Thou hast no t lost thyself to save t hyself 
As Galahad/ / When the hermit made an end, 

f In silver armour suddenly Galahad shone 
Before us, and against the chapel door 

Laid lance, and entered, and we knelt in prayer. 460 

And there the hermit slaked my burning thirst. 
And at the sacring of the mass I saw 
The holy elements alone ; but he, 
' Saw ye no more ? I, Galahad, saw the Grail, I 
The Holy Grail, descend upon the shrine : ' 465 

I saw the fiery face as of a child 
That smote itself into the bread, and went ; 
And hither am I come ; and never yet 
Hath what thy sister taught me first to see, 
This Holy Thing, faiPd from my side, nor come 470 

Cover'd, but moving with me night and day, 
Fainter by day, but always in the night 
Blood-red, and sliding down the blackened marsh 
Blood-red, and on the naked mountain top 
Blood-red, and in the sleeping mere below 475 

Blood-red. And in the strength of this I rode. 
Shattering all evil customs everywhere. 
And past thro' Pagan realms, and made, them mine. 
And clashed with Pagan liordes, and bore them down, 

I And broke thro' all, and in the strength of this 480 

Come victor. But my time is hard at hand, 
And hence I go ; and one will crown me king \ 
Far in the spiritual city ; and come thou, too. 
For thou shalt see the vision when I go.' 

" While thus he spake, his eye, dwelling on mine, 485 

Drew me, with power upon me, till I grew 
- One with him, to believe as he believed. ^ 

Then, wheji the day began to wane, we went. 



80 THE HOLY GRAIL. 

'^ There rose a hill that none but man could climb, 
Scarr'd with a hundred wintry water-courses — 490 

Storm at the top, and when we gain'd it, storm 
Eound us and death ; for every moment glanced 
His silver arms and gloom'd : so quick and thick 
The lightnings here and there to left and right 
Struck, till the dry old trunks about us, dead, 495 

Yea, rotten with a hundred years of death. 
Sprang into fire : and at the base we found 
On either hand, as far as eye could see, 
A great black swamp and of an evil smell. 
Part black, part whiten'd with the bones of men, 500 

Not to be crost, save that some ancient king 
Had built a way, where, link'd with many a bridge, 
A thousand piers ran into the great Sea. 
And Galahad fled along them bridge by bridge, 
And every bridge as quickly as he crost 505 

Sprang into fire and vanish'd, tho' I yearn'd 
To follow ; and thrice above him all the heavens 
Open'd and blazed with thunder such as seem'd 
Shoutings of all the sons of God : and first 
At once I saw him far on the great Sea, 510 

In silver-shining armour starry-clear ; 
And o'er his head the Holy Vessel hung 
Clothed in white samite or a luminous cloud. 
And with exceeding swiftness ran the boat, 
If boat it were — I saw not whence it came. 515 

And when the heavens open'd and blazed again 
Roaring, I saw him like a silver star — 
And had he set the sail, or had the boat 
Become a living creature clad with wings ? 
And o'er his head the Holy Vessel hung 520 

Kedder than any rose, a joy to me. 
For now I knew the veil had been withdrawn. 
Then in a moment when they blazed again 



J 



THE HOLY GRAIL. 81 

Opening, I saw the least of little stars 

Down on the waste, and straight beyond the star 525 

\ I saw the spiritual city and all her spires 
And gateways in a glory like one pearl — 
No larger, tho' the goal of all the saints — 
Strike from the sea; and from the star there shot 
r A rose-red sparkle to the city, and there 530 

^ Dwelt, and I knew it was the Holy Grail, 

i Which never eyes on earth again shall see. 

Then fell the floods of heaven drowning the deep. 

And how my feet recrost the death ful ridge 

No memory in me lives ; but that I touched 535 

The chapel-doors at dawn I know ; and thence 

Taking my war-horse from the holy man. 

Glad that no phantom vext me more, return'd 

To whence I came, the gate of Arthur's wars." 

" brother," ask'd Ambrosius, — " for in sooth 540 

These ancient books — and they would win thee — teem. 
Only. I find not there this Holy Grail, 
With miracles and marvels like to these. 
Not all unlike ; which oftentime I read. 

Who read but on my breviary with ease, 545 

Till my head swims ; and then go forth and pass 
Down to the little thorpe that lies so close. 
And almost plastered like a martin's nest 
To these old walls — and mingle with our folk ; 
And knowing every honest face of theirs 550 

As well as ever shepherd knew his sheep. 
And every homely secret in their hearts. 
Delight myself with gossip and old wives, 
And ills and aches, and teethings, lyings-in. 
And mirthful sayings, children of the place, 555 

That have no meaning half a league away : 
Or lulling random squabbles when they rise, 



82 THE HOLY GBAIL. 

Chaff erings and chatterings at the market-cross, 

Rejoice, small man, in this small world of mine, 

Yea, even in their hens and in their eggs — 560 

brother, saving this Sir Galahad, 

Came ye on none but phantoms in your quest. 

No man, no woman ? " 

Then Sir Percivale : 
^^ All men, to one so bound by such a vow, 
And women were as phantoms. O, my brother, 5G5 

^Yliy wilt thou shame me to confess to thee 
How far I falter'd from my quest and vow ? 
For after I had lain so many nights, 
A bedmate of the snail and eft and snake. 
In grass and burdock, I was changed to wan 570 

And meagre, and the vision had not come ; 
And then I chanced upon a goodly town 
With one great dwelling in the middle of it; 
Thither I made, and there was I disarmed 
By maidens each as fair as any flower : 575 

But when they led me into hall, behold, 

rThe Princess of that castle was the one. 
Brother, and that one only, who had ever 
_^Made my heart leap ; for when I moved of old 
A slender page about her father's hall, 580 

And she a slender maiden, all my heart 
Went after her with longing : yet we twain 
Had never kiss'd a kiss, or vow'd a vow. 
And now I came upon her once again. 

And one had wedded her, and he was dead, 585 

And all his land and wealth and state were hers. 
And while I tarried, every day she set 
A banquet richer than the day before 
By me ; for all her longing and her will 
Was toward me as of old ; till one fair morn, 690 



I 



THE HOLY GRAILo 83 



I walking to and fro beside a stream 
That flash' d across her orchard underneath 
Her castle- walls, she stole upon my walk, 
And calling me the greatest of all knights, 
Embraced me, and so kiss'd me the first time, 595 

And gave herself and all her wealth to me. 
Then I remember 'd Arthur's warning word. 
That most of us would follow wandering fires, 
And the Quest faded in my heart. Anon, 
The heads of all her people drew to me, 600 

With supplication both of knees and tongue : 
^ We have heard of thee : thou art our greatest knight^ 
Our Lady says it, and we well believe: 
Wed thou our Lady, and rule over us. 

And thou shalt be as Arthur in our land.' 605 

O me, my brother ! but one night my vow 
— Burnt me within, so that I rose and fled, 
But wail'd and wept, and hated mine own self. 
And ev'n the Holy Quest, and all but her ; 
Then after I was join'd with Galahad 6io 

Cared not for her, nor anything upon earth." 

Then said the monk, " Poor men, when yule is cold. 
Must be content to sit by little fires. 
And this am I, so that ye care for me 

Ever so little; yea, and blest be Heaven 615 

That brought thee here to this poor house of ours 
Where all the brethren are so hard, to warm 
My cold heart with a friend : but O the pity 
To find thine own first love once more — to hold. 
Hold her a wealthy bride within thine arms, 620 

Or all but hold, and then — cast her aside. 
Foregoing all her sweetness, l^ike a weed. 
For we that want the warmth of double life, 
We that are plagued with dreams of something sweet 



84 THE HOLY GRAIL. 

Beyond all sweetness in a life so rich, — 625 \ 

Ah, blessed Lord, I speak too earthly wise, 

Seeing I never stray'd beyond the cell, 

But live like an old badger in his earth, 

With earth about him everywhere, despite 

All fast and penance. Saw ye none beside, 630 

None of your knights ? '' 



'^ Yea so," said Percivale : 
'' One night my pathway swerving east, I saw 
The pelican on the casque of our Sir Bors 
All in the middle of the rising moon : 

And toward him spurr'd, and haiPd him, and he me, 635 

And each made joy of either ; then he ask'd 
^ Where is he ? hast thou seen him — Lancelot ? — Once,' 
Said good Sir Bors, ' he dash'd across me — mad. 
And maddening what he rode : and when I cried, 
" E-idest thou then so hotly on a quest 640 

So holy," Lancelot shouted, ^' Stay me not ! 
I have been the sluggard, and I ride apace, 
For now there is a lion in the way." 
So vanished.' 

" Then Sir Bors had ridden on 
Softly, and sorrowing for our Lancelot, 645 

Because his former madness, once the talk 
And scandal of our table, had return'd ; 
For Lancelot's kith and kin so worship him 
That ill to him is ill to them ; to Bors 

Beyond the rest : he well had been content 650 

Not to have seen, so Lancelot might have seen, 
The Holy Cup of healing; and, indeed. 
Being so clouded with his grief and love, 
Small heart was his after the Holy Quest : 
If God would send the vision, well : if not, 655 

The Quest and he were in the hands of Heaven. 



THE HOLY GRAIL. 86 

" And then, with small adventure met, Sir Bors 
Rode to the lonest tract of all the realm, 
And found a people there among their crags, 
Our race and blood, a remnant that were left 660 

Paynim amid their circles, and the stones 
They pitch up straight to heaven : and their wise men 
Were strong in that old magic which can trace 
The wandering of the stars, and scoif'd at him 
And this high Quest as at a simple thing : 665 

Told him he followed — almost Arthur's words — 
A mocking fire : ' what other fire than he, 
Whereby the blood beats, and the blossom blows, 
And the sea rolls, and all the world is warm'd ? ' 
And when his answer chafed them, the rough crowd, 670 
Hearing he had a difference with their priests. 
Seized him, and bound and plunged him into a cell 
Of great piled stones ; and lying bounden there 
In darkness thro' innumerable hours 

He heard the hollow-ringing heavens sweep 675 

Over him till by miracle — what else ? — 
Heavy as it was, a great stone slipt and fell 
Such as no wind could move : and thro' the gap 
Glimmer'd the streaming scud : then came a night 
Still as the day was loud ; and thro' the gap 680 

^The seven clear stars of Arthur's Table Round — 
For, brother, so one night, because they roll 
Thro' such a round in heaven, we named the stars, 
Rejoicing in ourselves and in our King — 
And these, like bright eyes of familiar friends, 685 

In on him shone : ' And then to me, to me,' 
Said good Sir Bors, ^beyond all hopes of mine, 
Who scarce had pray'd or ask'd it for myself — 

\/ Across the seven clear stars — grace to me — 

In colour like the fingers of a hand , 690 

Before a burning taper, the sweet Grail ' 



86 THE HOLY GRAIL, 

Glided and past, and close upon it peaPd 

A sharp quick thunder.' Afterwards a maid; 

Who kept our holy faith among her kin 

In secret, entering, loosed and let him go." 695 

To whom the monk : " And I remember now 
That pelican on the casque : Sir Bors it was 
Who spake so low and sadly at our board ; 
And mighty reverent at our grace was he : 
A square-set man and honest ; and his eyes, 700 

^ An out-door sign of all the warmth within, 
Smiled with his lips — a smile beneath a cloud, 
But heaven had meant it for a sunny one : 
Ay, ay, Sir Bors, who else ? But when ye reached 
The city, found ye all your knights returned, 705 

Or was there sooth in Arthur's prophecy. 
Tell me, and what said each, and what the King ? '^ 



Then answer'd Percivale: '^ And that can I, 
Brother, and truly ; since the living words 
Of so great men as Lancelot and our King 710 

Pass not from door to door and out again. 
But sit within the house. O, when we reached 
The city, our horses stumbling as they trode 
On heaps of ruin, hornless unicorns, 

Crack'd basilisks, and splinter'd cockatrices, 715 

And shattered talbots, which had left the stones 
Raw, that they fell from, brought us to the hall. 

^^ And there sat Arthur on the dais-throne. 
And those that had gone out upon the Quest, 
Wasted and worn, and but a tithe of them, 720 

And those that had not, stood before the King, 
Who, when he saw me, rose, and bad me hail, 
Saying, ^ A welfare in thine eye reproves 
Our fear of some disastrous chance for thee 



THE HOLY GRAIL. 87 

On hill, or plain, at sea, or flooding ford. 725 

So fierce a gale made havoc here of late 

Among the strange devices of our kings ; 

Yea, shook this newer, stronger hall of ours. 

And from the statue Merlin moulded for us 

Half- wren ch'd a golden wing ; but now — the Quest, 730 

This vision — hast thou seen the Holy Cup, 

That Joseph brought of old to Glastonbury ? ' 

" So when I told him all thyself hast heard, 
Ambrosius, and my fresh but fixt resolve 
To pass away into the quiet life, 735 

He answer'd not, but, sharply turning, ask'd 
Of Gawain, ' Gawain, was this Quest for thee ? ^ 

'^ ' Nay, lord,' said Gawain, ' not for such as I. 
Therefore I communed with a saintly man. 
Who made me sure the Quest was not for me ; 740 

For I was much awearied of the Quest : 
But found a silk pavilion in a field, 
And merry maidens in it ; and then this gale 
Tore my pavilion from the tenting-pin, 

And blew my merry maidens all about 745 

"With all discomfort ; yea, and but for this. 
My twelvemonth and a day were pleasant to me.' 



" He ceased ; and Arthur turn'd to whom at first 
He saw not, for Sir Bors, on entering, push'd 
Athwart the throng to Lancelot, caught his hand, 750 

Held it, and there, half-hidden by him, stood, 
Until the King esi)ied him, saying to him, 
^ Hail, Bors ! if ever loyal man and true 
Could see it, thou hast seen the Grail ; ' and Bors, 
^ Ask me not, for I may not speak of it : 755 

I saw it ; ' and the tears were in his eyes. 



88 ^ "^^^ HOLY GRAIL. 

" Then there remain'd but Lancelot, for 
Spake but of sundry perils in the storm ; 
Perhaps, like him of Cana in Holy Writ, 
Our Arthur kept his best until the last ; 760 

^ Thou, too, my Lancelot,' ask'd the King, ' my friend. 
Our mightiest, hath this Quest avail'd for thee ? ' 



-' " ' Our mightiest ! ' answer'd Lancelot, with a groan ; 

^ King ! ^ — and when he paused, methought I spied 

A dying fire of madness in his eyes — 765 

^ King, my friend, if friend of thine I be, 

Happier are those that welter in their sin. 

Swine in the mud, that cannot see for slime, 

Slime of the ditch: but in me lived a sin 

So strange, of such a kind, that all of pure, 770 

Noble, and knightly in me twined and clung 

Round that one sin, until the wholesome flower 

And poisonous grew together, each as each. 

Not to be pluck'd asunder ; and when thy knights 

Sware, I sware with them only in the hope 775 

That could I touch or see the Holy Grail 

They might be pluck'd asunder. Then I spake 

To one most holy saint, who wept and said. 

That save they could be pluck'd asunder, all 

My quest were but in vain ; to whom I vow'd 780 

That I would work according as he will'd 

And forth I went, and while I yearnVl and strove 

To tear the twain asunder in my heart. 

My madness came upon me as of old. 

And whipt me into waste fields far away ; 785 

There was I beaten down by little men. 

Mean knights, to whom the moving of my sword 

And shadow of my spear had been enow 

To scare them from me once ; and then I came 

All in my folly to the naked shore, 790 



i 



THE HOLY GRAIL. 89 

Wide flats, where nothing but coarse grasses grew ; 

/"But such a blast, my King, began to blow, 

' So loud a blast along the shore and sea, 
Ye could not hear the waters for the blast, 
Tho' heapt in mounds and ridges all the sea 795 

Drove like a cataract, and all the sand 
Swept like a river, and the clouded heavens 
Were shaken with the motion and the sound. 
And blackening in the sea-foam sway'd a boat 
Half-swallow'd in it, anchored with a chain ; 800 

And in my madness to niyself I said, 
" I will embark and I will lose myself, / 

— xind in the great sea wash away my sin/' ' \ 
I burst the chain, I sprang into the boat. 
Seven days I drove along the dreary deep, 805 

And with me drove the moon and all the stars ; 
And the Avind fell and on the seventh night 
I heard the shingle grinding in the surge, 
And felt the boat shock earth, and looking up, 
Behold, the enchanted towers of Carbonek, 810 

A castle like a rock upon a rock, 
With chasm-like portals open to the sea, 
And steps that met the breaker ! there was none 
Stood near it but a lion on each side 

That kept the entry, and the moon was full. 815 

Then from the boat I leapt, and up the stairs. 
There drew my sword. With sudden flaring manes 
Those two great beasts rose upright like a man. 
Each gript a shoulder, and I stood between ; 
And, when I would have smitten them, heard a voice, 820 
" Doubt not, go forward ; if thou doubt, the beasts 
Will tear thee piecemeal." Then with violence 
The sword was dash'd from out my hand, and fell. 
And up into the sounding hall I past ; 
But nothing in the sounding hall I saw, 825 



90 THE HOLY GBAIL. 

No bench nor table, painting on the wall 
Or shield of knight ; only the rounded moon 
Thro' the tall oriel on the rolling sea. 
But always in the quiet house I heard, 

Clear as a lark, high o'er me as a lark, 830 

A sweet voice singing in the topmost tower 
To the eastward : up I climb'd a thousand steps 
With pain : as in a dream I seem'd to climb 
For ever : at the last I reached a door, 

A light was in the crannies, and I heard, 835 

." Glory and joy and honour to our Lord 
'And to the Holy Vessel of the Grail." 
Then in my madness I essay'd the door ; 
It gave ; and thro' a stormy glare, a heat 
As from a seventimes-heated furnace, I, 840 

Blasted and burnt, and blinded as I was. 
With such a fierceness that I swoon'd away — 
0, yet methought I saw the Holy Grail, 
All palPd in crimson samite, and around 
Great angels, awful shapes, and wings and eyes. 845 

And but for all my madness and my sin. 
And then my swooning, I had sworn I saw 
That which I saw ; but what I saw was veiPd 
And cover'd ; and this Quest was not for me.' 



" So speaking, and here ceasing, Lancelot left 850 

The hall long silent, till Sir Gawain — nay. 
Brother, I need not tell thee foolish words, — 
A reckless and irreverent knight was he. 
Now bolden'd by the silence of his King, — 
Well, I will tell thee : ' King, my liege,' he said, 855 

' Hath Gawain fail'd in any quest of thine ? 
When have I stinted stroke in foughten field ? 
But as for thine, my good friend Percivale, 
Thy holy nun and thou have driven men mad. 



THE HOLY GKAIL. 91 

Yea, made our mightiest madder than our least. 860 

But by mine eyes and by mine ears I swear, 

I will be deafer than the blue-eyed cat. 

And thrice as blind as any noonday owl, 

To holy virgins in their ecstasies, 

Henceforward.' 

" ' Deafer,' said the blameless King, 865 
' Gawain, and blinder unto holy things 
Hope not to make thyself by idle vows, 
Being too blind to have desire to see. 
But if indeed there came a sign from heaven. 
Blessed are Bors, Lancelot and Percivale, 870 

For these have seen according to their sight. 
For every fiery prophet in old times. 
And all the sacred madness of the bard. 
When God made music thro' them, could but speak 
His music by the framework and the chord ; 875 

And as ye saw it ye have spoken truth. 



" ' Nay — but thou errest, Lancelot : never yet 
Could all of true and noble in knight and man 
Twine round one sin, whatever it might be. 
With such a closeness, but apart there grew, 880 

Save that he were the swine thou spakest of. 
Some root of knighthood and pure nobleness ; 
Whereto see thou, that it may bear its flower. 

" ' And spake I not too truly, my knights ? 
Was I too dark a prophet when I said h'85 

To those who went upon the Holy Quest, 
That most of them would follow wandering fires, 
Lost in the quagmire ? — lost to me and gone. 
And left me gazing at a barren board, 

And a lean Order — scarce returned a tithe — 890 

And out of those to whom the vision came 



92 THE HOLY GRAIL. 

My greatest hardly will believe he saw ; 

Another hath beheld it afar off, 

And leaving human wrongs to right themselves, 

Cares but to pass into the silent life. -, 895 

And one hath had the vision face to face, 

And now his chair desires him here in vain, 

However they may crown him otherwhere. 

'' ' And some among you held, that if the King 
Had seen the sight he would have sworn the vow : 900 

Not easily, seeing that the King must guard 
That which he rules, and is but as the hind 
To whom a space of land is given to plo.w. 
Who may not wander from the allotted field 
Before his work be done ; but, being done, 905 

Let visions of the night or of the day 
Come, as they will ; and many a time they come, 
Until this earth he. walks on seems not earth. 
This light that strikes his eyeball is not light, 
This air that smites his forehead is not air 910 

But vision — yea, his very hand and foot — 
In moments Avhen he feels he cannot die. 
And knows himself no vision to himself, 
Nor the high God a vision, nor that One 
Who rose again : ye have seen what ye have seen.' 915 



" So spake the King : I knew not all he meant." 



NOTES. 



ABBREVIATIONS USED IN NOTES AND APPENDIX. 

Brooke. Tennyson^ his Art and Relation to Modern Life. By S. 

A. Brooke. 

G. of M. Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Begum Britannice. 

Globe. Globe edition of Tennyson's Poems, 1898. 

Hucher. Le Saint Graal, 3 vols. 

Lay. Layamon's Brut, Sir F. Madden, ed. 

Mai. Malory's Morte Dartliur. 

Mai. Som. Sommer's edition of the Morte Darthur. 

Mem. Alfred^ Lord Teymyson^ a Memoir by his Son. 

Merlin. Middle English Bomance of Merlin. E. E. Text. Sc, 

Nos. 10, 24, 36. 

Nen. Historia Britonum of Nennius. 

Newell. King Arthur and the Table Bound. W. W. Newell. 

Nntt. Studies in the Legend of the Holy Grail. A. Nutt. 

Potvin. Le Conte del Graal^ 6 vols., i.e. Chrestien's Perceval. 

R. de Mer. The French Boman de Merlin., edited by H. O. Sommer. 

Wace. Wace's Boman de Brut. 



The Title. The Holy Grail. See Introduction above, esp. I. 1, 
pp. 14-16. 

For discussion concerning the meaning of the word " Graal " see 
Skeat's edition of the English version of Joseph of Arimathie, E. E. 
Text Sc, 44, pp. 36-40. "The word is from the Low Latin gradate, 
or grasale, a kind of vessel of wood, earth, or metal, from the Latin 
cratella, diminutive of crater or cratera. At first the seynt graal was 
the Holy Dish used at the Last Supper . . . given by Pilate to Joseph 
. . . used by Joseph to collect the blood flowing from the five wounds. 
Later this dish became the cup of the Last Supper " (cf. Holy Grail., 
1. 46). 

The Graal in Joseph of Arimathie is so called because it is agree- 
able to those who look upon it. Ed. Michel, 11. 26*^)7-2678. The same 

93 



94 NOTES. 

reason is given in Le Grand Saint Graal^ where Nasciens, on seeing 
the Grail, says that everything he has seen before somewhat dis- 
pleased him, but that this pleases him entirely. Hucher, Vol. II. 
p. 306. 

The early Perceval Romances do not connect the Grail with the cup 
of the Last Supper. In Wolfram's Parzival the Grail is a precious 
stone. 

The Verse. The verse is iambic pentameter blank verse, that is, 
each line consists of five iambic feet, and there is no rhyme. An 
iambic foot is composed of two syllables, the stress falling upon the 

V V V V V 

second : From noise | ful arms | and acts | of prow | ess done |. As 
early as 1834, in the Morte cV Arthur^ Tennyson had shown himself a 
master in this the verse of Marlowe, of Shakespeare, and of Milton. 
Many traits go to make the beauty of Tennyson's blank verse. The 
student should notice the combinations of vowel and consonant sounds 
(i.e. tone-color), and the variations produced by the shifting of the 
chief pause (the c?esural pause). This pause may come after any 
foot in the verse or in the middle of any foot. Many times a verse 
contains a secondary pause, and occasionally one has no pronounced 
pause. The frequent change in the position of the pause is an im- 
portant factor in the varied harmony of the poem. One should notice 
also that the first foot in a verse is sometimes trochaic (i.e. a long 
syllable followed by a short one), or spondaic (i.e. two long syllables), 
instead of iambic. 
Exami)les of the variety in the pause : — 

1. In the middle of first foot, 11. 82, 354, 531. 

2. After first foot, 11. 8, 224, 445. 

3. Middle of second foot, 11. 18, 705. 

4. After second foot, 11. 1, 5, 19, 608. 

5. Middle of third foot, 1. 53. 

6. After third foot, 11. 12, 108, 267. 

7. Middle of fourth foot, 11. 103, 135. 

8. After fourth foot, 11. 21, 509, 599. 

9. Middle of fifth foot, 1. 840. 
10. No marked pause, 11. 398, 550. 

Line 2. ''Sir Percivale," cf. Introduction, I. 1, A. "And as soon 
as he (Galahad) was buried. Sir Percivale yielded him to an hermitage 
out of the city, and took a religious clothing. And Bors was always 
with him, but never changed he his secular clothing, for that he pur- 
posed him to go again into the realm of Logris (England). Thus a 



NOTES. 95 

year and two months lived Sir Percivale in the hermitage, a full holy 
life, and then passed out of this world.'' — Mai., Bk. XVII. Ch. XXIII. 

Line 3. Arthur, the great British hero, about whom cluster so many \/ 
legends and romances, is historically a dim figure. There seems no 
reason to doubt that there was a leader of that name, who fought 
on the side of the Britons against the Saxons and other tribes at 
the end of the fifth and the beginning of the sixth century. He is ^ 
first mentioned in the Historia Britonum^ called the History of 
Nennius. In Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Begum Britannice^ 
Arthur has grown to a world conqueror, who subdues even Rome 
and exacts tribute from the Romans. Stories of Arthur grew under 
many hands. Because fellowship with the Round Table added glory \ 
to the most famous knights, stories not originally belonging to the \ 
Arthurian group were joined to it. Such are the story of Tristram and 
the story of the Holy Grail. It is most interesting to trace the growth 
of the history of King Arthur from the ninth to the thirteenth century : 

Nennius^ Latin, ninth century. Geoffrey of Monmouth^ Latin, 
about 113G. Wace, Norman French, 1155. Layamon^ English, about 
1205. Le Boman de Merlin^ French, probably thirteenth century. 

Among the many modern English poems which are, in whole or in 
part, Arthurian in subject, are Spenser's Faerie Queene in the sixteenth 
century, and, in the nineteenth, William Morris's The Defence of 
Guenevere, King Arthur'' s Tomb, Sir Galahad^ A Christmas Mystery^ 
and The Chapel in Lyonesse, Matthew Arnold's Tristram and Iseult^ 
Swinburne's Tristram of Lyonesse and The Tale of Balen, and 
Bulwer-Lytton's King Arthur, Stephen Hawker's poem, The Quest 
of the Sangreal, was earlier than Tennyson's Idyll. To these poems 
may be added the Arthurian dramas of the late Richard Hovey : The 
Quest of Merlin^ The Marriage of Guenevere, The Birth of Galahad, 
and Taliesin, A Masque. y^^ 

Line 7. "Camelot," " Camelot is neither situated in Wales, as 
Caxton states (preface to Morte Darthur, 1485), nor is the English 
Winchester identical with it. Camel, near South Cadbury, Somerset, 
is the place where the remains of the old city of Camelot are still to 
be found."— Mai. Som. Vol. II. p. 157, footnote. Cf. Mai., Bk. II. 
Ch. XIX. " The Cyte of Camelot that is in English Wynchestre." 

In Lonelich's version of the Grand Saint Graal, we read how 
Josephes comes to a city. 

*' Which was tho clepid Ka Amelot ; 
And this the Riichest City was 
Of AUe Ipreteygne In Ony plas. 



96 NOTES. 

and Ek it was of sweche bounte 

That Alle kinges weren crowned there Sekerle. (surely.) 

Whiche that weren of paynem londe." 

— E. E. Text Sc, Hohj Grail, p. 206, Ch. XL VII. 11. 17-23. Cf. 
note on 11. 227-231. 

Lines 13-15. In Lady Tennyson's Journal, April, 1868, is the fol- 
lowing entry: "There has been a great deal of smoke in the yew 
trees this year. One day there was such a cloud that it seemed to 
be a fire in the shrubbery." Lord Hallam Tennyson adds : *' It was 
there that he (Tennyson) wrote the speech of Ambrosius in The 
Holy Grail, with the lines about this ' smoke ' ; that is, the pollen 
of the yew blown and scattered by the wind. ... He would say : 
' I made most of Tlie Holy Grail walking up and down my field, 
Maiden's Croft.' In Memoriam, Sec. XXXIX., was also written at 
this time." 3Iem., Vol. II. Ch. IV. p. 53. ♦ 

III Memoriam, Sec. XXXIX. : — 

" Old ^varder of these buried bones. 

And answering now my random stroke 
With fruitful cloud and living smoke. 
Dark yew, that graspest at the stones, 

" And dippest toward the dreamless head, 
To thee, too, comes the golden hour 
When flower is feeling after flower j 
But sorrow fixt upon the dead, 

'* And darkening the dark graves of men, 
What whispered from her lying lips ? 
Thy gloom is kindled at the tips 
And passes into gloom again." 

This section should be compared with In Memoriam, Sec. 11. , and 
with Wordsworth's poem. Yew Trees. 

Line 21. "Nor ever strayed beyond the pale." Pale means the 
limit of the monastery. Cf. Milton, II Penseroso, 1. 176. "To walk 
the studious cloister's pale." 

Line 28. " The Table Round." King Arthur's knights were called 
the Order of the Round Table, and the Round Table symbolized a 
fellowship in which none was preferred before another, but all were 
equal. The Round Table seems to be first mentioned by the French 
poet Robert Wace, in Le Boman de Brut, about 1155. In Layamon's 



a 



NOTES. 97 

Brut the making of the Round Table comes about because the knights 
fought so fiercely for first place that many were wounded, and even 
slain. Wace, 11. 9994-10007. Lay., 11. 22873-22943. R. de Mer., 
Chs. III.-IV. Mai., Bk. III. Ch. I.; Bk. IX. Ch. II.; Bk. XIV. Ch. 
II. Cf. Guinevere. Globe, p. 454. 

" For I was first of all the kings who drew 
The knighthood-errant of this realm and all 
The realms together under me, their Head, 
In that fair Order of my Table Round, 
A glorious company, the flower of men. 
To serve as model for the mighty world, 
And be the fair beginning of a time," etc. 

Cf. also. Merlin and Vivien^ Globe, p. 379. 

*' It was the time when first the question rose ^ 
About the founding of a Table Round, ( 

That was to be, f oi^ love of God and men ! 

And noble deeds, theTSower of all the world." { 

Lines 40-44. Compare 11. 696-700. 

Line 46. ^' The cup." The cup, Matt. 26 : 27. ''And he took the 
cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying. Drink ye all of it." 

Lines 49-50. "After the day of darkness, when the dead went 
wandering o'er Moriah." "And the graves were opened ; and many 
bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after 
his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto 
many. ' ' — Matt.' 27 : 52-53. 

Moriah was the name of the hill on which the Temple of Jerusalem 
was built. 

Line 5L " Arimathsean Joseph." "When the even was come, 
there came a rich man of Arimath?ea, named Joseph, who also himself 
was Jesus' disciple. He went to Pilate and begged the body of 
Jesus." — Matt. 27: 57-58. For the story of Joseph of Arimathiea 
and the cup of the Last Supper, see Introduction, I. 1, B. 

Cf. " Yet true it is, that long before that day 
Hither came Joseph of Arimathy, 
Who brought with him the holy grayle, they say. 
And preacht the truth ; but since it greatly did decay." 
— Spense^, Faerie Queene^ II. X. 53. 



98 NOTES. 

Cf. Balin and Balan, where Pellam 

"finds himself descended from the Saint 
Arimathaean Joseph ; him who first 
Brought the great faith to Britain over seas." 

— Globe, p. 364. 

Line 62. Glastonbury is a town in Somersetshire. In the year of 
/ our Lord G3, twelve disciples of St. Philip were sent into Britain to 
{ convert the heathen inhabitants. The chief of the band was Joseph 
of Arimathsea. The heathen king Arviragus rejected the mission, but 
allowed the missionaries to retire to an island in the midst of marshes, 
the present site of Glastonbury. Here they built and dedicated to the 
Virgin Mary "a chapel (capellam), whose walls below were formed 
round about with twisted or wattled rods. The twelve dwelt in this 
spot, dying off one after another, until the place became a solitude 
and a resort of wild beasts." A century later the church was discov- 
ered by two missionaries sent by Pope Eleutherius, and a little mon- 
astery was then founded, which existed when St. Patrick visited the 
place three hundred years afterward. St. Patrick himself, after his 
mission to Ireland, lived many years at Glastonbury and there died, 
A.D. 472. The ancient church (vetiista ecclesia^ as it is called in the 
chronicles) was held in great veneration. It is said that St. Paulinus, 
Archbishop of York (a.d. 625-644), "clothed the old church with 
boards, and covered it with lead from the top to the bottom." Abbre- 
viated from Architectural History of Glastonbury Abbey, 1866, R. 
Willis. 

CThe "Holy Thorn," which was said to blossom at Christmas, was 
believed to have grown from the staff of Joseph of Arimathaea. 

Glastonbury Abbey is one of the most beautiful ruins in England. 
It is rich in legend, and dear to all lovers of Arthurian story. Here 
'^ Queen Guinevere was laid beside King Arthur, and Sir Lancelot 
offered masses for her soul, and swooned for sorrow when she was 
" put in the earth." Here are said to lie the bones of many saints, 
bishops, and martyrs; but it is history, not legend, that Glastonbury 
is the one Christian church in England which was not destroyed by 
the Saxons nor the Danes, but has had an unbroken existence since 
the conversion of the Britons. References : Dugdale's Monasticon 
Anglicanum, 1655. Skeat's Joseph of Arimathie, E. E. Text. Sc, 
1871. Introduction, pp. xxiii-xxiv. Mai. Som., Vol. 11. p. 166, foot- 
note. Brooke, English Literature from the Beginning to the Norman 
Conquest^ Ch. I. pp. 14-16. 



1 



NOTES. 99 

Line Gl. " Arviragus." See preceding note. 

Line 70. Sir Perceval's sister does not, I think, appear in that part 
of Le Conte del Graal (Bib., A. 1) which is written by Chrestien de 
Troyes, nor in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival (Bib., A. 6). In 
a later part of Le Conte del GraaU probably written by Gautier de 
Doulens, Perceval is told by his sister of his mother's death. Nutt, 
p. 10. Potvin TV. 11. 25745-25944. Something like the same inci- 
dent occurs in the Didot Perceval (Bib., A. 3). Nutt, p. 30. Hucher, 
Vol. I. pp. 446, 447. In the Qiteste (Bib., A. 4) the story of Perce- 
val's sister is very much the same as that in the Morte Darthur. 
Newell, Vol. II. pp. 188-190. Mai., Bk. II. Ch. XIV. ; Bk. XVII. 
Chs. IL VII. XL XIII., etc. 

In the French prose romance Perceval le Gallois (Bib., A. 7), Per- 
ceval's sister is called Dindrane, and she plays a large part in the 
story. See The High History of the Holy Grail, S. Evans, passim. 

" Percivale's sister is admirably drawn. All the main character- 
istics of the mystic female saint, like Catherine of Siena, are embodied 
in her ; and the picture is made by scattered touches given with 
apparent lightness through the story. She was no cold-hearted maid. 
The type of which she is the image has a passionate temperament." — 
Brooke, p. 324. 

Cf. "And the house midway hanging, see 
That saw Saint Catherine bodily. 
Felt on its floors her sweet feet move, 
And the live light of fiery love 
Burn from her beautiful, strange face. 

■5if •5|f Tlf ^ ^ •5i^ 

Clothed with calm love and clear desire, 

She went forth in her soul's attire, 

A missive fire." 

— Swinburne, Siena. 

For studies of the maiden saint, compare also Tennyson's St. Agnes'' 
Eve, Globe, p. 107, and Crashaw's Ode to Saint Theresa. 

Lines 103-105. Note the repetition of words and phrases. This 
repetition is characteristic of Tennyson, and often gives a beautiful 
effect. Cf . Enoch Arden : — 

" The blaze upon the waters to the east ; 
The blaze upon the island overhead ; 
The blaze upon the waters to the west." 

— Globe, p. 131. 

LcfO, 



100 NOTES. 

Tlie Marriage of Geraint : — 

" Forgetful of his promise to the King, 
Forgetful of the falcon and the hunt, 
Forgetful of the tilt and tournament, 
Forgetful of his glory and his name. 
Forgetful of his princedom and his cares." 

— Globe, p. 335. 
Lines 116-123. Cf. 1. 680, note. 

Line 135. " Galahad.'' Cf. Introduction L 1, C, above. " It seems 
to be generally agreed that the name and activity of Galahad must be 
considered as an invention of the author of the romance. La Queste 
del Saint Graal^ who chose to substitute this hero for Perceval as a 
character better suited for his religious theme." — Newell, Vol. II. 
p. 261. In most of the old romances Galahad is the son of Lancelot, 
as in the Grand Saint Graal, where the author,- after giving his parent- 
age, goes on to describe his deeds and his character : "This Galahad of 
whom I speak to you, shall achieve and accomplish the siege perilous 
of the round table of King Arthur that M^*lin will establish in honor of 
the table of Joseph^ and the void place at the table of the San Graal 
he shall fill, and he shall bring to an end all the perilous adventures of 
the kingdom of Logris and of the other countries which belong to the 
Grail, he and Perceval the son of King P^linor and Bors the Chaste, 
who shall be son of King Bors the brother of King Ban of Benoye. 
This Galahad shall be virgin in heart and in thoughts, and so good a 
knight that his peer cannot be found before nor, after. He shall have 
knighthood, and shall be like a lion and (yet) he shall have a heart 
pitiful, and a manner simple and meek as that of a bashful maiden.-' 
^Hucher, III. pp. 354-355. 

By the thirteenth century, Lancelot had become the greatest hero 
of Arthurian romance; and the author of the Queste^ though he 
I needs a purer knight for his story, connects the new hero with him 
I who is known as the bravest and gentlest of Arthur's fellowship. 
Concerning the growth of this tradition of the birth of Galahad, Mr. 
Newell says: "The whole composition {Le Grand Saint Graal) 
seems intended to pave the way for the advent of a new Grail-hero, 
who shall be a son of Lancelot of the Lake, as well as a scion of the 
race of Joseph of Arimathsea." — Joiir. Am. Folk-Lore, No. 40. 

The name Galahad is thought to be derived from Numbers 26 : 
29, and other passages, where the name, which in the English versions 
is Gilead, is in the Latin Vulgate, Galaad. Newell, above, Heinzel, 
R., tjber die Franzbsischen Gralromane. Ct. 1. 144, note, below. 



NOTES. 101 

Line 135. "Galahad in white armour." The mediseval Grail-hero 
wore red. In Chrestien's poem, and in Wolfram's, Perceval wins his 
first armor from a red knight, and this red armor is often mentioned. 
In Wolfram's poem (Bk. VI. 11. 1581-1582, Weston), Parzival's harness 
is said to shine " white as the day "; but in Bk. VII. Parzival appears 
again clad all in red (1. 1373) . 

In the Queste, when Galahad entered the great hall and was 
unarmed, he "remained in a coat of red sendal, and a red mantle 
lined with ermine cast over his shoulders. " — Newell, Vol. 11. p. 159. 
Cf. Mai., Bk. XIII. Ch. IV. In Malory, Galahad is "a young knight 
... in red arms," Bk. XIII. Ch. III. Both the Qiieste and the 
Morte Darthiir tell how Galahad received the red-cross shield. Cf. 
Introduction, VI. above. Cf. 1. 680, note, below. 

Lines 136-137. 

" * God make thee good as thou art beautiful,' 
Said Arthur when he dubb'd him knight." 

In the Queste and in the 3forte Darthiir it is Lancelot, not Arthur, 
who makes Galahad knight. "Lancelot gave him the accolade, pray- 
ing that God might make him worthy, for beauty had he sufficient." 
— Qiieste, Newell, Vol. II. p. 155. " That night Sir Lancelot had pass- 
ing good cheer ; and on the morn at the hour of prime, at Galahad's 
desire, he made him knight and said, God, make him a good, man, 
for of beauty faileth you not as any man that liveth." — Mai., Bk. 
XIII. Ch. L 

Lines 143-148. "A son of Lancelot." Cf. 1. 135, note. Tennyson 
rejects for his spiritual hero the sinful parentage which the old 
romances had given him. This change is as much loss as gain in 
spiritual symbolism, for the old stories would seem to say that the life 
of holiness can keep Galahad pure even if he be born of the sin-stained 
Lancelot. The author of the Grand Saint Graal says, "Our Lord 
did not consider the sinful birth of Galahad, but his good life and good 
purpose." — Hucher, Vol. III. p. 296. Cf. 1. 3, note, above. 

Line 145. " By enchantment." Cf. Mai., Bk. XIII. Ch. IV. 

Line 149. "But she, the wan sweet maiden, shore away," etc. 
"Fair sir, said Percivale's sister, dismay you not, for by the leave of 
God I shall let make a girdle to the sword, such one as shall long thereto. 
And then she opened a box, and took out girdles which were seemly 
wrought with golden threads, and upon that were set full precious 
stones, and a rich buckle of gold. Lo, lords, said she, here is a girdle 
that ought to be set about the svyordr 4-nd wit ye well the greatest 



V 



102 NOTES. 

part of this girdle was made of my hair, which I loved well while that 
I was a woman of the world. But as soon as I wist that this adventure 
was ordained me I clipped off my hair, and made this girdle in the 
name of God. , . . And then she girt him about the middle with 
the sword. Now reck I not though I die, for now I hold me one of the 
blessed maidens of the world which hath made the worthiest knight of 
the world. Damosel, said Galahad, ye have done so much that I shall 
be your knight all the days of my life." Mai., Bk. XVII. Ch. VII. 

Line 172. "The Siege perilous" =: perilous seat. No man might 
safely sit in the vacant chair at the Round Table until the knight 
should come for whom it had been made. ''And Merlyn, that full 
of stronge arts was, cleped the kynge (Uther, father of Arthur) as 
they weren sette, and shewed hym the voyde place. And many other 
it syen, but they ne knewe not the tokeninge, ne why it was voyde. 
. . . And than the kynge come to Merlyji and seide. But I wolde 
praye the to telle me, yef thou knowe, who shall fulfille the place that 
is voyde ! And Merlyn ansuerde, Wite thou right well that it shall 
not be in thy tyme . . . but it shall be in the kynges tyme that shall 
come after the.'' — 3Ierlin, Ch. IV. pp. 660-661. Cf. Mai., Bk. XI. 
Ch. L; Bk. XII. Ch. XIV.; Bk. XIII. Ch. 11. "Siege" is from the 
French siege, seat. 

Line 178. Merlin was the great magician of King Uther Pendragon, 
and of his son, King Arthur. He was prophet, counselor, builder of 
palaces, worker of miracles, maker of armor. The earliest version of 
the Arthur and Merlin story, says Mr. Sommer, "is undoubtedly 
Geoffrey of Monmouth's History.''' There is a poem by Robert de 
Borron dating from the early thirteenth century called Merlin. It 
exists only as fragment of 504 lines. There is a prose version of a 
slightly later date, and following that two longer prose romances. 
These are called for convenience the Vulgate Merlin, and the Suite 
de Merlin. From the Suite de Merlin Sir Thomas Malory translated 
the 3Iorte Darthur, Bk. I. Chs. XIX.-XXVIII. and Bks. 11. , III., 
and IV. 

There is a fifteenth-century English version of the " Vulgate " 3Ier- 
lin, from which I quote more than once as 3Ierlin. Cf. G. of M., 
Bks. VIII. -IX. Mai. above. For the passing of Merlin, see Merlin, 
Ch. XXXIII. pp. 679-681, Tennyson's Merlin and Vivien, Globe, 
p. 373, and Swinburne's Tristram of Lijonesse, VI. pp. 108-110. 

The Suite de 3Ierlin has been edited by G. Paris and J. Ulrich, 1886, 
and the " Vulgate " Merlin by Mr. Sommer (li. de Mer). 

Spenser in the Faerie Queene, Bk, III. Canto III., describes a great 
cave " emongst the woody hilles of Dynevowre," where, he tells his 



NOTES. 103 

reader, may still be heard the imprisoned servants of the magician at 
their labor underground. 

" Standing high aloft low lay thine eare, 

And there such ghastly noyse of yron chaines 

And brazen Caudrons thou shalt rombling heare, 
Which thousand sprights with long enduring paines 

Doe tosse, that it will stonn thy feeble braines ; 

And oftentimes great grones, and grievous stownds, 

When too huge toile and labour them constraines, 
And oftentimes loud strokes and ringing sowndes 
From under that deepe Rock most horribly rebowndes. 

The cause, some say, is this : A litle whyle 

Before that Merlin dyde, he did intend 
A brazen wall in compas to compyle 

About Cairmardin, and did it commend 
Unto these Sprights to bring to perfect end : 

During which work the Lady of the Lake, 
Whom long he lov'd, for him in hast did send ; 

Who, thereby forst his workemen to forsake, 

Them bownd till his retourne their labour not to slake 

In the meane time, through that false Ladies traine 

He was surprised, and buried under beare, 
Ne ever to his worke returned againe : 

Nath'lesse those feends may not their work forbeare, 
So greatly his commandement they feare. 

But there do toyle and traveile day and night, 
Untill that brazen wall they up doe reare ; 

For Merlin had in magick more insight 

Than ever him before, or after, living wight." 

Cf. also 1. 3, note, above. Stanzas VIIL-XL 

Lines 175-176. " Merlin sat in his own chair, and so was lost." 
I know of no such legend in the old romances. 

Line 178. "Merlin's doom." Merlin's prophecy concerning the 
Siege perilous. 

Line 179. "If I lose myself, I save myself." This is the brief . 
expression of Galahad's whole purpose. He is to deny himself earthly ^ 
love and earthly joy, and to seek only the vision of holier things. 
"For whosoever would save his life shall lose it ; but whosoever shall 
lose his life for my sake the same shall save it." — Luke : 24. 



104 NOTES. 

Lines 179-202. The vow of the knights is thus told in the French 
Queste, Malory's source : — 

*' After the king had returned from the monastery, he bade the 
tables be set, and the companions seated themselves each in his own 
place. After they had put themselves at their ease, they heard a 
crash of thunder so loud and strange that they thought the walls 
would have crumbled ; presently shone the sun, a hundred times 
brighter than before, and the knights stared at each other, for they 
wist not whence came that brightness ; for a long time they sat still, 
eyeing each other like dumb beasts. With that, by the main door, 
appeared the Holy Grail, covered with a white napkin, entering in 
such wise that no bearer could be perceived ; as soon as it entered, 
the hall was filled with odours, as if had been scattered all the spices 
of the world. The Grail went about the palace from wall to wall ; as 
it passed, the tables were laden with such fare as each heart desired. 
When all the knights had been served, the Grail took leave so sud- 
denly that none knew in what manner it had gone ; they who had lost 
their speech now recovered their voice, and returned thanks to our 
Lord for the blessing he had bestowed, in that he had honored them 
so much as to feed them with the grace of the Holy Grail. Of all 
who were present gladdest was King Arthur, that God had granted 
him such honor as never before had been shown to any sovereign 
prince. 

'' So long as the meal lasted, the knights rejoiced, and spake of the 
favour they had received ; but herein they were disappointed that 
without covering they had not seen the Holy Grail ; wherefore Sir 
Gawain cried: 'This vow I make, that to-morrow, without further 
delay, I will enter on a quest, in such manner that I will devote a 
year and a day if need be ; nor, whatever befall, will I return to court 
until I have viewed the Grail more openlj^ than it hath hitherto been 
visible, if in any wise I may come to behold it ; and if that be im- 
possible, then will I return.' When the other knights heard, they 
rose and made the same pledge ; and they declared that they would 
not cease to seek until they should be seated at the worthy table, 
where every day was provided food as sweet. King Arthur was 
troubled and cried to Sir Gawain : ' Ha, Gawain, thou hast betrayed 
me ! This day hast thou deprived me of the most loyal company that 
ever I have found ; when they separate, I know again they may not 
be united, but many will perish in this quest that will continue longer 
than they deem. With all my might have I kept them, and I love 
them as brethren or sons ; I may see no means whereby I may be 
able to endure their loss.' The king grew pensive, and tears came 



NOTES. 105 

into his eyes. 'Ha, sir!' cried Lancelot, 'such an one as yourself 
ought to cherish good hope. If we die in the quest, it will be more 
honorable than if we ended elsewhere.' 'Lancelot,' returned the 
king, 'the great love I entertain for thee causeth me to utter such 
words ; never had any Christian king so many good knights as myself 
this day, nor when they part shall ever they be gathered at one table, 
as up to this time they have been.' " — Newell, Vol. IL pp. 165-167. 
Cf. also Introduction, pp. 30-32, above. 

In Hawker's Quest of the Sangreal, the knights draw lots for the 
directions which they shall take. The lots are arrows. 

" Sir Lancelot drew the north, that fell domain, 
Where fleshly man must brook the airy fiend. . . . 
The south fell softly to Sir Percival's hand : 
Some shadowy angel breathed a silent sign : 
That so that blameless man, that courteous knight, 
Might mount and mingle with the happy host 
Of God's white army in their native land ! 
But hark the greeting ! ' Tristan for the West ! ' 
Sir Galahad holds the Orient arrow's name : 
His chosen hand unbars the gate of day ! 
O ! blessed East ! 'mid visions such as thine, 
'Twere well to grasp the Sangraal, and die." 

Cf. Lowell's The Vision of Sir Laitnfal. Part First. 

I. " My golden spurs now bring to me. 

And bring to me my richest mail, 
For to-morrow I go over land and sea 
In search of the Holy Grail ; 
( Shall never a bed for me be spread, I 
\ Nor shall a pillow be under my head,] 
Till I begin my vow to keep ; 
Here on the rushes will I sleep. 
And perchance there may come a vision true 
Ere day create the world anew. 

^ 2tk jIC ^£. "il J^ 

TpT - vp: Tfz "7^ y(z Tp: 

II. " The drawbridge dropped with a surly clang, 

And through the dark arch a charger sprang, 
Bearing Sir Launfal, the maiden knight, 
In his gilded mail, that flamed so bright 
It seemed the dark castle had gathered all 
• Those shafts the fierce sun had shot over its wall 



106 NOTES. 

In his siege of three hundred summers long, 
And, binding tiiem all in one blazing sheaf, 

Had cast them forth : so, young and strong, 
And lightsome as a locust leaf, 

Sir Launfal flashed forth in his unscarred mail 

To seek in all climes for the Holy Grail." 

Lowell's plot is, he tells us, his own (cf. note to Sir Launfal, in 
most editions). The theme of the poem is expressed in Part Second, 
VI.-VIII., where the leper, whom Sir Launfal feeds, is transfigured and 
appears like the glorified Son of Man. 

VIIL " And the voice that was calmer than silence said, 
' Lo it is I, be not afraid ! 
In many climes, without avail, 
Thou hast spent thy life for the Holy Grail ; 
Behold, it is here — this cup which thou 
Didst fill at the streamlet for me but now ; 
******* 
Who gives himself with his alms feeds three, — 
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me.' 

IX. " Sir Launfal awoke as from a swound : 
' The Grail in my castle here is found ! 
Hang my .idle armor up on the wall, 
Let it be the spider's banquet hall ; 
He must be fenced with stronger mail 
Who would seek and find the Holy Grail.' " 

Line. 202. "And Gawain sware, and louder than the rest." Cf. 
App. I. 

Line 205. "The King 

Was not in hall." 
In the old story the King is present. See 1. 179, note, above, and 
Introduction, p. 31. 

Lines 227-231. "For all the dim rich city," etc. "Of course 
Camelot, for instance, a city of shadowy palaces, is everywhere sym- 
bolic of the gradual growth of human beliefs and institutions, and of 
the spiritual development of man." — Tennyson, 3iem., Vol. II. Ch. V. 
p. 126. Perhaps the most beautiful pictures of this dim Camelot are 
given in Gareth and Lynette, where the lad, Gareth, can scarce be 
sure if the city be real or only visionary 



I 



NOTES. 107 

'' So when their feet were planted on the plain 
That broaden'd toward the base of Camelot, 
Far off they saw the silver-misty morn 
Rolling her smoke about the lloyal mount 
That rose between the forest and the field. 
At times the summit of the city flash' d ; 
At times the spires and turrets halfway down 
Prick'd thro' the mist ; at times the great gate shone 
Only, that open'd on the field below : 
Anon, the whole fair city had disappear'd. 
Then those who went with Gareth were amazed, 
One crying, ' Let us go no further, lord ; 
Here is a city of Enchanters, built 
By fairy Kings ! ' " 

When "an ancient man " comes forth from the Gate of the Three 
Queens, Gareth tells him : — 

''These, my men, 
(Your city moved so weirdly in the mist) 
Doubt if the King be King at all, or come 
From Fairyland ; and whether this be built 
By magic, and by fairy Kings and Queens ; 
Or whether there be any city at all, 
Or all a vision." 

The old man answers : — 

" For truly as thou sayest, a Fairy King 
And Fairy Queens have built the city, — son ; 
They came from out a sacred mountain cleft 
Toward the sunrise, each with harp in hand, 
And built it to the music of their harps. . . . 
For an ye heard a music, like enow 
They are building still, seeing the city is built 
To music, therefore never built at all. 
And therefore built forever ! " 

Then Gareth 

" Enter'd with his twain 

Camelot, a city of shadowy palaces 

And stately, rich in emblem and the work 

Of ancient kings who did their days in stone ; 



108 NOTES. 

Which Merlin's hand, the Mage at Arthur's Court, 
Knowing all arts, had touch'd, and everywhere 
At Arthur's ordinance, tipt with lessening peak 
And pinnacle, and had made it spire to heaven." 

— Globe, pp. 314-316. 

In The Last Tournament are given hints of the city, sad in the 
autumn of the year and in the fading glory of Arthur's broken and 
dishonored fellowship : — 

" Camelot in among the faded fields." 
''But when the morning of a tournament. 
By these in earnest those in mockery call'd 
The Tournament of the Dead Innocence, 
Brake with a wet wind blowing, Lancelot, 
. . . down a streetway hung with folds of pure 
White samite, and by fountains running wine. 
Where children sat in white with cups of gold. 
Moved to the lists, and there, with slow, sad steps 
Ascending, fill'^ his double- dragon' d chair, — " 

i.e. Arthur's. Globe, pp. 435-437. Cf. also The Lady of Shalott, 
Globe, p. 27, " Many- towered Camelot," and Swinburne, Tristram 
of Lyonesse, VI. p. 106. 

'' They sat and communed of things past : what state 
King Arthur, yet un warred upon by fate. 
Held high in hall at Camelot, like one 
Whose lordly life was as the mounting sun 
That climbs and pauses on the point of noon, 
Sovereio:n." 



'O' 



Line 250. The names of the twelve great battles in which Arthur 
defeated the heathen hordes are given by Nennius. " Then it was 
that the magnanimous Arthur, with all the kings and military force 
of Britain, fought against the Saxons. And, though there were many 
more noble than himself, yet he was twelve times chosen their com- 
mander, and was as often conqueror. . . . The first battle at the 
mouth of the river Glen. The second, third, fourth, and fifth on 
another river, by the Britons called Duglas. The sixth on the river 
Lussas. The seventh in the wood Celidon. The eighth near Guinnion 
Castle. The ninth at the city of Leogris which is called Cair Lion. 
The tenth on the banks of the river Trat Tremroit. The eleventh 
on the mountain Breguoin, which we call Cat Bregion. The twelfth 



I 



NOTES. 109 

on the hill of Badon'' (Bath). —Abbreviated from Nennius, Sec. 50, 
pp. 28-29. Cf. Lancelot and Maine. 

*' And Lancelot spoke 
And answered him at full, as having been 
With Arthur in the fight which all day long 
Rang by the white mouth of the violent Glem ; 
And in the four loud battles by the shore 
Of Duglas ; that on Bassa ; then the war 
That thundered in and out the gloomy skirts 
Of Celidon the forest ; and again 
By Castle Gurnion, where the glorious king 
Had on his cuirass worn our Lady's Head, 
Carved of one emerald centered in a sun 
Of silver rays that lighten'd as he breathed ; 
And at Caerleon had he helped his lord, 
When the strong neighings of the wild White Horse 
Set every gilded parapet shuddering ; 
And up in Agned-Cathregonion too. 
And down the waste sand-shores of Trath Treroit, 
Where many a heathen fell ; ' And on the mount 
Of Badon, I myself beheld the king 
Charge at the head of all his Table Round.' " 

— Globe, p. 392. 

Line 253. "The brand Excalibur." Arthur's sword, made in the 
island of Avallon, is mentioned by Geoffrey of Monmouth. ''Then 
girding on his Caliburn, which was an excellent sword made in the 
Isle of Avallon, he graced his right hand with his lance, named Ron, 
which was hard, broad, and fit for slaughter, Arthur rushed into the 
hordes of the enemy. . . . 

'' Arthur, provoked to see the little advantage he had yet gained and 
that victory still continued in suspeilse, drew out his Caliburn, and 
calling upon the name of the blessed Virgin rushed forward with great 
fury into the thickest of the enemy's ranks . . . neither did he give 
over the fury of the assault until he had, with his Caliburn alone, 
killed four hundred and seventy men." — G. of M., Bk. IX. Ch. IV. 
This is at the siege of Badon, Bath. 

Cf. also Lay., 11. 21137-39. "Caliburn, his sword, he hung by his 
side; it was wrought in Avalon with magic craft," etc. 

The sign that Arthur is chosen to be King is that he draws this sword 
from a great stone into which it is fixed. Mai, Bk. L Chs. IIl.-V. 
Merlin, Ch. VI. p. 98. 



110 NOTES. 

Line 256. Edition of 1869, "O then, perchance, when all our wars 
are done." 

Line 257. " The brand Excalibur will be cast away." Cf. Mai., Bk. 
XXI. Ch. V. Tennyson, Morte cV Arthur, Globe, p. 67. The Passing 
of Arthzir, Globe, p. 458. In Tennyson's The Coming of Arthur, the 
Lady of the Lake gives Arthur 

''his huge cross-belted sw^ord 
Whereby to drive the heathen out. 

There likewise I beheld Excalibur 
Before hnn at his crowning borne, the sword 
That rose from out the bosom of the lake. 
And Arthur row'd across and took it — rich 
With jewels, elfin Urim on the hilt, 
Bewildering heart and eye — the blade so bright 
That men are blinded by it — on one side 
Graven in the oldest tongue of all this world, 

* Take me,' but turn the blade and ye shall see. 
And written in the speech ye speak yourself, 

* Cast me away ! ' " 

— Globe, pp. 307-308. 

Line 263. " The golden dragon." The dragon was Arthur's royal 
emblem, as it had been that of his father Uther, whose title Pen- 
dragon meant, the old stories say, Dragon's head. G. of M., Bk. 
VIIL Chs. XIY.-XVIL 

Le Roman de Merlin, Sommer's ed., Ch. III. In this romance of 
Merlin Uter has a brother named Pendragon. The two brothers are 
about to fight a host of Saxons. Merlin says to Pendragon, " When 
it is day, you will see a red dragon in the air, moving between heaven 
and earth, and when you shall *have seen the emblem of your name, 
you may fight confidently, for your men shall have the victory." 
Pendragon is slain in this battle, and Uter takes the name of Uter- 
pendragon. Merlin makes Arthur a dragon banner to be his ensign. 

"And Merlin made to Kynge Arthur a baner where-in was grete 
signification, for ther-in was a dragon, which he made sette on a 
spere, and be semblance he cast oute of his mouth fire and flame. 
And he had a great taile and a longe. This dragon no man cowde 
wite where Merlin it hadde, and it was merveilouse light and mevable ; 
and whan it was set on a launce thei beheilde it for grete merveile." 
— Merlin. Ch. VII. 






( 



I 



I 



NOTES. Ill 

In the Old French the dragon is made of brass, and its tail is tor- 
lice^ twisted. 

Cf. also Lay., Brut, 11. 18227-18230. " Ever since they called Uther, 
who for a standard bare the dragon . . . Uther Pendragon, Pendragon 
in British, Dragon's-head in English." 

In Tennyson's Idylls the dragon emblem is frequently mentioned. 

'' Easily to be known, 
Since to his crown the golden dragon clung. 
And down his robe the dragon writhed in gold, 
And from the carven work behind him crept 
Two dragons gilded, sloping down to make 
Arms for his chair, while all the rest of them 
Thro' knots and folds and loops innumerable 
Fled ever thro' the woodwork." 

— Lancelot and Elaine, Globe, p. 396. 

*' The Dragon of the great Pendragonship 
That crowned the state pavilion of the King." 

— Guinevere, Globe, p. 453. 

"But she saw 
The dragon of the great Pendragonship 
Blaze, making all the night a stream of fire." 

— Thid., p. 456. 

Line 287. Matt. 11 : 7. " Jesus began to say unto the multitudes 
concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see ? " 

Line 290. "But I, Sir Arthur, saw the Holy Grail." In Malory, 
no knight sees the Holy Grail. Cf. note, 11. 179-202. Cf. App. IL 

Line 298. Edition of 18(39, "But you that follow but the leader's 
bell." 

Line 300. "Taliessin." An ancient Welsh bard. See Henry Mor- 
ley, English Writers, Vol. I. pp. 210-214. Taliessin was supposed to 
have lived in the eighth century. Cf. 1. 3, note, above. 

Line 302. "Lancelot is Lancelot." Lancelot is always, in Malory, 
the best knight in battle. It is honor enough to any other to be 
second to Lancelot in a combat. But when Galahad comes and draws 
his sword from the stone, the preeminence of Lancelot is ended. 
"Therewith the king and all espied where came riding down the 
river a lady on a white palfrey toward them. Then she saluted the 
king and the queen, and asked if that Sir Launcelot was there. And 
then he answered himself : I am here, fair lady. Then she said, all 



112 NOTES. 

with weeping : How your great doing is changed sith this day in the 
morn. Damosel, why say you so ? said Launcelot. I say you sooth, 
said the damosel, for ye were this day the best knight of the world ; 
but who should say so now, he should be a liar, for there is now one 
better than ye, and well it is proved by the adventure of the sword, 
where to ye durst not set to your hand. ... As touching unto that, 
said Launcelot, I know well I was never the best. Yes, said the 
damosel, that were ye, and are yet, of any sinful man of the world," 
— Mai., Bk. XIII. Ch. V. The leadership of the Round Table has 
passed from Lancelot to Galahad. 

Line 311. Cf. 1. 250, note. 

Line 312. "The strong White Horse." That is, the power of the 
heathen Saxons. " Tacitus tells us that the Germans kept sacred 
white horses, at the public expense, in the groves and woods of the 
gods, and that from their neighings and snortings auguries were 
taken. Amongst the people of the northern marshlands, the white 
horse seems to have been held in especial honour, and to this day a 
white horse rampant forms the cognizance of Hanover and Brunswick. 
The English settlers brought this, their national emblem, with them 
to Britain, and cut its figure on the chalk downs as they advanced 
westward, to mark the progress of their conquest. The white horses 
on the Berkshire and Wiltshire hills still bear witness to their settle- 
ment. A white horse is even now the symbol of Kent," — Grant 
Allen, Anglo-Saxon Britain^ pp, 27-28. 

Many students will remember the references to the vale of the 
White Horse in l^om BrowiVs School Days at Rugby, Ch. I. Cf. 
Guinevere : — 

"The Lords of the White Horse, 
Heathen, the brood of Hengist left." 

— Globe, p. 456, 

Cf. Lancelot and Elaine, I. 250, note, above. 

" His (Hengist's) Weapon or Arms being a leaping white Horse, or 
Hengst, in a red Field." — Richard Verstigan, Bestitution of Decayed 
Intelligence in Antiquities. London, 1673, p. 131. 

Cf. Bulwer-Lytton, King Arthur. Bk. I. Stanza LIV. 

" ' I saw — I saw my dragon standard there, — 

Thronged there the Briton ; there the Saxon wheePd ; 

I saw it vanish from that nether air — 

I saw it trampled on that noiseless field ; — 

On pour'd the Saxon hosts — we fled — we fled ! 
And the Pale Horse rose ghastly o'er the dead.' " 



NOTES. 113 

Line 318. In edition of 1869, *' The chance of noble deeds will 
come and go.*" 

Line 319. In edition of 1869, "Unchallenged while ]iou follow 
wandering fires.'' 

Line 322. " let us meet 

. . . once more in the full field." 

In Malory, before the coming of the Holy Grail into the hall, it is 
known that Galahad will achieve the quest, and the king has said to 
him, "Sir, ye be welcome, for ye shall move many good knights to 
the quest of the Sangreal, and ye shall achieve that never knight 
might bring to an end." Bk. XIII. Ch. IV. The tournament also 
takes place before the supper in the hall. " Now, said the king, I am 
sure at this quest of the Sangreal shall all ye of the Table Round 
depart, and never shall I see you again whole together ; therefore I 
will see you all whole together in the meadow of Camelot to joust and 
to tourney, that after your death men may speak of it that such good 
knights were wholly together such a day. As unto that counsel and 
at the king's request they accorded all, and took on their harness that 
longed unto jousting. But all this moving of the king was for this 
intent, for to see Galahad proved. . . . Then Sir Galahad, by the 
prayer of the king and the queen, did upon him a noble jesseraunce 
(cuirass), and also he did on his helm, but shield would he take none 
for no prayer of the king. . . . Then Sir Galahad dressed him in 
middes of the meadow, and began to break spears marvellously that 
all men had wonder of him ; for he there surmounted all other knights, 
for within a while he had defouled (trodden down) many good knights 
of the Table Round save twain, that was Sir Launcelot and Sir 
Percivale." — Mai., Bk. XTIL Ch. VL 

Line 325. Edition of 1869, " Before ijoii leave him for this quest. ''^ 

Line 350. " On wyvern, lion, dragon, griffin, swan." These are the 
projecting carvings. The "necks of dragons," in line 346, were, of 
course, carved corbels supporting the "lady-laden" balconies. The 
upper stories of the houses projected over the street, and age had 
made them lean more and more, so that the folk who bent from roofs 
and balconies " met foreheads all along the street." 

Line 352. In the edition of 1869, "Calling, ' God speed ! ' but in 
the street below." 

Lines 350-360. " And then they put on their helms and departed, 
and recommended them all wholly unto the Queen ; and there was 
weeping and great sorrow. Then the Queen departed into her cham- 
ber so that no man should apperceive her (jreat sorrows. When Sir 



114 NOTES. 

Launcelot missed the Queen, he went unto her chamber, and when she 
saw him she cried aloud : O, Sir Launcelot, ye have betrayed me and 
put me to death for to leave thus, my lord. Ah, madam, said Sir 
Launcelot, I pray you be not displeased, for I shall come as soon as I 
may with my worship. Alas ! said she, that ever I saw you ; but 
he that suffered death upon the cross for all mankind be to you good 
conduct and safety, and all the whole fellowship. Right so departed 
Sir Launcelot, and found his fellowship that abode his coming. And so 
they mounted upon their horses and rode through the streets of Camelot ; 
and there was weeping of the rich and poor, and the King turned away 
and might not speak for weeping." — Mai., Bk. XIII. Ch. VIII. 

Line 355. In edition of 1869, "For sorrow^ and in the middle 
street the queen.^'' 

Line 358. "The Gate of the three Queens." Cf. Gareth and 
Lynette, Globe, p. 315 : — 

" And there was no gate like it under heaven, 
For barefoot on the keystone, which was lined 
And rippled like an ever-fleeting wave. 
The Lady of the Lake stood : all her dress 
Wept from her sides as water flowing away ; 
But like the cross her great and goodly arms 
Stretch' d under all the cornice and upheld : 
And drops of water fell from either hand ; 
And down from one a sword was hung, from one 
A censer, either worn with wind and storm ; 
And o'er her breast floated the sacred fish ; 
And in the space to left of her, and right, 
Were Arthur's wars in weird devices done, 
New things and old so-twisted, as if Time 
Were nothing, so inveterately, that men 
Were giddy gazing there ; and over all 
High on the top were those three Queens, the friends 
Of Arthur who should help him at his need." 

Lines 361-457. Percivale's story. Compare Mai., Bk. XIV. Chs. 
III.-X. See Introduction, VI. Different as is Tennyson's poem 
from the broken old tale qf yialory's Frenche Booke, both agree in 
making the obstacle to Percivale's quest his lack of humility, of self- 
surrender. 

Lines 370-378. "Percivale starts full of joy in his own bravery, 
but, as he goes, Arthur's warning that his knights in this quest are 
following wandering fires occurs to him, and he drops down into 



I 



NOTES. 115 

despair. Then he sees a series of visions. A burning thirst consumes 
him ; it is the symbol of the thirst for union with God." — Brooke, 
p. 333. 

Lines 389-390. . . . ^' It is the symbol of the thirsty soul trying to 
find in the beauty of nature its true home, and failing." — Brooke, 
p. 333. 

Lines 391-400. "It is the symbol of the soul trying to find rest in 
domestic love, and failing." — Brooke, p. 334. 

Lines 401-420. " It is the symbol of the soul seeking to be satisfied 
with the glory of the earth, chiefly to be attained in war." — Brooke, 
p. 334. "This is the glory of wealthy before which the world pros- 
trates itself." — G. B. Macaulay, Holy Grail. 

Lines 421-450. "It is the symbol of the soul seeking to slake its 
thirst by popular applause, and especially in the fame of a ruler of 
men, but all is thirst and desolation as before ; and then he finds the 
valley of humility, and of forgetfulness of his sins in the glory of God's 
love. It is a rich invention, and perfectly wrought." — Brooke, p. 334. 

Line 420. In edition of 1809, "And loearied in a land of sand 
and thorns." 

Line 421. In edition of 1869, "And on I rode, and found a mighty 
hill." 

Line 427. ''Clomh:' Ct Princess. 

"but oft 

Clomb to the roofs." 

— Globe, p. 205. 
Line 433. In edition of 1869. "That so cried upon me? and he 
had." This is probably a misprint. 

Line 455. "Thou thoughtest," etc. If Percivale had "lost him- 
self, like Galahad," even his sins would have been forgotten in his 
desire for the Grail. 

Line 458. "In silver armour Galahad." Cf. 1. 135, note. 
Lines 452-453. 

" and like a flying star 
Led on the gray-hair'd wisdom," etc. 

Matt. 2 : 1-9. " Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, of Judjea, 
in the days of Herod the King, behola, here came ivise men from the 
east to Jerusalem, . . . and lo, the star, which they saw in the cast, 
went before them till it came and stood over where the young child 
was." 

Line 456. Cf. 1. 179, note. 

Lines 466-467. " The fiery face as of a child." " And then he took 



\ 



116 NOTES. 

an ubblie (wafer), which was made in likeness of bread. And at the 
lifting up there came a figure in likeness of a child, and the visage was 
as red and as bright as any fire, and smote himself into the bread," etc. 
— Mai., Bk. XVIL Ch. XX. 

Line 483. "Far in the spiritual city.'''* This expression may have 
been suggested to Tennyson by the frequent mention in the old 
romances of the Spiritual Palace in the city of Sarras. In the Grand 
Saint Graal it is called " Z^ palais esperitensy — Hucher, II. p. 128. 
Cf. Newell, II. p. 197. Mai. Bk. XVIL Chs. XL XXI. XXII. 

Line 489. In edition of 1869, " Then rose a hill," etc. 

Lmes 518-519. 

"And had he set the sail, or had the boat 
Become a living creature clad with wings ? " 

These beautiful lines recall the greater passage in the Purgatorio of 
Dante, where the poet sees the boat with its angelic pilot approaching 
over the mystic sea: "... Appeared to me ... a light along the 
sea coming so swiftly that no flight equals its motion. . . . Again I 
saw it brighter become and larger. Then on each side of it appeared 
to me a something, I know not what, white, and beneath, little by 
little, another came forth from it. My Master still said not a word, 
until the first white things showed themselves wings ; then, when he 
clearly recognized the pilot, he cried out^ ' Mind, mind thou bend thy 
knees. Lo ! the Angel of God: fold thy hands.' . . . See how he 
scorns human means, so that he wills not oar, or other sail than his own 
wings between such distant shores." — Norton's Dante., Pur. 11. 

Lines 526-530. Compare the celestial city in Paradise Lost, Bk. II. 
11. 1047-1050: — 

"Far off the empyreal heaven, extended wide 
In circuit, undetermined square or round, 
AVith opal towers and battlements adorn' d 
Of living sapphire." 

Line 532. "Which never eyes on earth again shall see." Com- 
pare the death of Galahad, in the Queste : "At the end of the year, 
on the day of Galahad's coronation, he and his comrade rose early, 
and proceeded to the Spiritual Palace. As they gazed at the holy 
vessel, they beheld a man like a bishop, surrounded by angels, who 
celebrated mass ; when he came to the Elevation of the Host, he called 
Galahad, and said : ' Servant of Christ, advance, for now shall thou 
behold what so long thou hast desired to see.' While Galahad looked, 
he trembled ; and, as his mortal flesh began to perceive the spiritual 



NOTES. 117 

things, he prayed that while he was in that joy, he might be allowed 
to enter the celestial life. The bishop took the Host, and offered it to 
Galahad, telling him that he was Josephes, son of Joseph, a virgin like 
himself. At these words, Galahad kissed Perceval and Bors, bidding 
the latter in his name salute Lancelot his father ; with that, he knelt 
at the table, and presently fell forward, while angels received his soul. 
The two comrades saw descend a hand that carried upward the vessel 
and the lance ; and from that day was no man so bold as to affirm that 
he had looked on the Holy Grail.'''' — Newell, Vol. II. p. 197. Cf. 
also Mai., Bk. XVII. Ch. XXII. 

Lines 540-563. " This great and lofty vision ... is made all the 
more vivid, and its unfitness for the common toil of goodness on this 
earth is shown, by the contrast which Tennyson immediately makes 
to it in the daily life of the poor monk Ambrosius, who knows naught 
of marvels, but is the providence of the little village near which he 
lives ; who does not understand these unearthly visions, but who pities 
the men who, having known the sweetness of love, surrender it for 
dreams. . . . The delightful description ... of the work of this 
small, comfortable, and comforting village priest shows not only how 
Tennyson liked this type, but also marks the range of a poet who 
could, as it were, in one breath, write the sublime passing of Galahad 
and, immediately after, this homely, loving sketch of a small monk's 
life in a small world." — Brooke, pp. 327-328. 

Line 574. In edition of 1869, "- Whither I made," etc. 

Line 633. '' The Pelican on the casque of good Sir Bors. " Cf. Mai., 
Bk. XVI. Ch. VI., where Sir Bors sees a bird that pierces its own 
breast and feeds its young with its life-blood. " The pelican as crest 
is no doubt meant as a symbol of the unselfish devotion to his kins- 
man which characterizes him." — G. B. Macaulay, Holy Grail. Mv 
Macaulay also calls attention to the fact that Bors loses himself in his 
love and care for Lancelot, and therefore sees the Grail. 

Line 646. ''His former madness." —Mai., Bk. XL Ch. IX. ; Bk. 
XII. Ch. IV. Lancelot's madness is healed by the Holy Grail. See 
also 1. 648, note. 

Line 648. "For Lancelot's kith and kin so worship him." In 
edition of 1869, "For Lancelot's kith and kin adore him so.'''' Cf. 
Mai., Bk. XI. Ch. IX., where Sir Bors says of Sir Lancelot, who has 
become mad because of Queen Guinevere's anger: "Alas, that ever 
Sir Launcelot's kin saw you, for now have ye lost the best knight of 
our blood, and he that was all our leader and our succour ; and I dare 
say and make it good that all kings. Christian nor heathen, may not 
find such a knight, for to speak of his nobleness and courtesy, with 



118 NOTES. 

his beauty and his gentleness. Alas, said Sir Bors, what shall we 
do that be of his blood ? Alas, said Sir Ector de Maris. Alas, 
said Lionel." Cf. in Lancelot and Elaine^ the tournament in which 
Lancelot, in disguise, overthrows all the knights, and his ''kith and 
kin " are jealous of the stranger : — 

" A fury seized them all 
A fiery family passion for the name 
Of Lancelot — " 

— Globe, p. 395. 

Line 661. " Paynim amid their circles." " ' Paynim ' is here used 
as an adjective for pagan, but properly Paynim should mean ' heathen 
lands,' from Old French j)a«6?u'sme, Low Latin paganismus.^'' — G. B. 
Macaulay, Holy Grail. The "circles" are the Druid temples. The 
greatest remnant from these ancient heathen temples is the circle of 
Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain. 

Line 680. Cf. 1. 135 and note, above. Tennyson makes his spirit- 
ual hero wear white, the symbol of purity and separateness from the 
world, but he does not discard the mediaeval symbolism of the color 
red. Rose-red and flame, in Christian symbolism, signified the glory 
and the burning of love and zeal ; and Tennyson makes these the 
colors in which the spiritual revelation, the vision of the Grail, is . 
given. Nowhere is Tennyson's use of symbolic color more beautiful',! 
than in these various appearances of the Grail. To Percivale's sister i 
the Holy Cup comes down a long beam of light, and shows rose-red 
with beatings in it, as if alive. To Bors, the rosy glow is like that of 
a taper through the fingers of a hand. To Galahad's eager vision, it 
burns like the fiery face of a child, and it moves before him, blood-red, 
over marsh, mountain, and mere. Percivale beholds it above the head 
of the transfigured Galahad, redder than any rose. Lancelot, whose 
heart yet treasures its deadly sin, sees the Grail through glare, as of a 
seven-times-heated furnace, sees it covered with crimson samite, and 
knows that the quest is not for him. Cf. the use of white and red in 
Dante's Paradiso. Of the angelic host the poet writes, "Their faces 
were all of living flame, and their wings of gold ; and the rest so white 
that no snow reaches that extreme." ^- Par., Canto XXXI., Norton's 
translation. Cf. in Coleridge's Eime of the Ancient Mariner., the 
seraph band : — 

"Pull many shapes, that shadows were, 
In crimson colours came." 

Line 681. " The seven clear stars of Arthur's Table Round." The 
name Arthur meant the Bear, Arcturus, and was connected with the 



NOTES. 119 

constellation of the Great Bear. " The circle which this constellation 
describes around the polar star denoted the Round Table.'' — Little- 
dale, Essaijs on Lord Tennyson'' s Idylls of the King, p. 29. Cf. Grimm, 
Deutsche Mythologies ed. 1844, p. 633 ; Wolmer, Worterhuch der 
Mythologie, ed. 1836, p. 326. Cf. The Last Tournament : — 

''the knights, 
Glorying in each new glory, set his name 
High on all hills and in the signs of heaven." 

— Globe, p. 440. 

Lines 696-700. Cf. 11. 40-44. 

Lines 718-721. Cf. Mai., Bk. XVII. Ch. XXIII.; Bk. XVIII. Ch. I. 

Lines 759-760. "Like him of Cana." John 2 : 1-10. "... Every 
man at the beginning doth set forth good wine : and when men have 
well drunk, then that which is worse ; but thou hast kept the good 
wine until now." 

Line 810. " Carhoneky In the Grand Saint Graal (Bib., A. 5) 
Corbenic is the beautiful and strong castle which Alain le Gros builds 
in the Terre Foraine for the safe-keeping of the Grail. "And they 
brought the holy vessel and placed it in a high chamber in the palace." 
The writer says that the name is Arabic and means holy vessel. 
Hucher, IIL p. 289. Cf. Mai., Bk. XIV. Ch. II. " Ryde streght unto 
the castel of Carbonek where the maymed kynge is there lyenge." 
Also Bk. XVIL Chs. L XVL XIX. 

Lines 774-849. "Lancelot's story." Cf. Introduction, VI., above. 
"And the wind arose and drove Launcelot more than a month through- 
out the sea, where he slept but little, but prayed to God that he might 
see some tidings of the Sangreal. So it befell on a night, at midnight, 
he arrived afore a castle on the back side, which was rich and fair, and 
there was a postern opened toward the sea, and was open without any 
keeping, save two lions kept the entry ; and the moon shone clear. 
Anon Sir Launcelot heard a voice that said, Launcelot, go out of this 
ship and enter into the castle, where thou shalt see a great part of thy 
desire. Then he ran to his arms and so armed him, and so went to 
the gate and saw the lions. Then set he hand to his sword and drew it. 
Then there came a dwa^f suddenly, and smote him on the arm so sore 
that the sword fell out of his hand. Then heard he a voice say : O 
man of evil faith and poor belief, wherefore trowest thou more on thy 
harness than on thy Maker, for He might more avail thee than thine 
armour, in whose service that thou art set. Then said Launcelot, 
Fair Father, Jesus Christ, I thank Thee of Thy great mercy that Thou 
reprovest me of my misdeed ; now see I well that ye hold me for your 



120 NOTES. 

servant. Then took he again his sword and put it up in his sheath, 
and made a cross in his forehead, and came to the lions, and they 
made semblaunt to do him harm. Notwithstanding he passed by them 
without hurt, and entered into the castle to the cliief fortress, and 
there were they all at rest. Then Launcelot entered in so armed, but 
he found no gate nor door but it was open. And at the last he found 
a chamber whereof the door was shut, and he set his hand thereto to 
have opened it, but he might not. Then he enforced him mickle to 
undo the door. Then he listened and heard a voice which sang so 
sweetly that it seemed none earthly thing ; and he thought the voice 
said joy and honour be to the Father of Heaven. Then Launcelot 
kneeled down to fore the chamber, for well wist he that there was the 
Sangreal within that chamber. Then said he : Fair, sweet Father, 
Jesus Christ, if ever I did thing that pleased Thee, Lord, for Thy pity 
never have me not in despite for my sins done aforetime, and that 
Thou shoio me something of that I seek. And with that he saw the 
chamber door open, and there came out a great clearness, that the 
house was as bright as all the torches of the world had been there, 
o . . Then looked he up in the middes of the chamber, and saw a table 
of silver, and the Holy Vessel, covered with red samite, and many 
angels about it, whereof oi>e held a candle of wax burning, and the 
other held a cross and the ornaments of an altar. . . . Right so 
entered he into the chamber, and came to the table of silver ; and 
when he came nigh he felt a breath, that him thought it was inter- 
meddled with fire, which smote him so sore in the visage that him 
thought it brent his visage ; and therewith he fell to the earth, and had 
no power to arise." Sir Launcelot lies as one dead for four and twenty 
days ; when he becomes conscious he asks where he is : ''Then said 
they all that he was in the Castle of Carbonek. . . . Sir, said they, 
the quest of the Sangreal is achieved now^ right in you, that never 
shall ye see of the Sangreal no more than ye have seen." — Mai., Bk. 
VIL Chs. XIV.-XVL 

Line 916. " So spake the king : I knew not all he meant." 
" The vision comes to each according to the soul of each. . . . But 
however the vision came or did not come, the p^iirsu it of it, as Tenny- 
son thought, was the ruin of noble association for just government, 
the contradiction and not the realization of true religion. It breaks 
up the Round Table. The kingdom is left without its defenders, and 
when the remnant return they are exhausted. Their failure to reach 
ideal goodness has made them reckless, and drives them into base 
materialism. That which was left of truth and purity in the court 
lessens day by day. . . . But where, then, Tennyson asks, is spirit- 



APPENDIX I. 121 

uality to be found, where pure holiness, and love which beholds the 
invisible kingdom ? It is to be found where Arthur found it, in the 
midst of human life, in honest love of men, in doing our duty where 
God has placed us. Arthur, who represents this view of Tennyson, 
has, he says, his own visions. He has more. He sees God, not as a 
vision, but face to face. He does not wander on the quest of the Holy 
Grail, but He whose sacrifice of love the Holy Grail embodied is 
always with him. So says the King, and Percivale, less spiritual in 
his ascetic solitude than Arthur, does not 'know all he meant.' " — 
Brooke, pp. 328-330. Of. also Introduction, p. 34, for Tennyson's own 
comments on this passage. 

" He (Tennyson) pointed out the difference between the five visions 
of the Grail as seen by the Holy Nun, Sir Galahad, Sir Percivale, Sir 
Lancelot, Sir Bors, according to their different, their own peculiar 
natures and circumstances, and the perfection or imperfection of their 
Christianity. He dwelt on the mystical treatment of every part of his 
subject, and said that the key is to be found in a careful reading of 
Sir Percivale's vision and subsequent fall and nineteenth-century 
temptation.^." — 3fe7?i., Vol. 11. Ch. III. p. 63. 

"Browning came in, and returned with me and Knowles to dinner, 
where again I read the Grail^ and Browning said it was my ' best and 
highest.' " — Tennyson, November, 1868, Mem.^ Vol. II. Ch. II. p. 59. 



APPENDIX I. SIR GAWAIN.i 

"And Gawain sware, and louder than the rest." 

— Holy Grail, I 202.^ 

The changes which Tennyson makes in the material of 
the old romances are often easy to iniderstand, and many 
times they are not only justifiable, but admirable — the addi- 
tion of new beauty to old beauty. But Tennyson's presenta- 
tion of the character and position of Sir Gawain seems to me 
to be without reason and without excuse. It is not, how- 
ever, entirely without antecedent, for the Gawain of the 
later mediaeval romances differs from the Gawain of the 
earlier ones. 

" In the earliest Arthurian romances, Gawain, the nephew 
of King Arthur, stands nearest to the King, and is his favor- 

1 Cf. Weston, Jessie L., The Le(jendof Sir Oawaln. 



122 APPENDIX I. 

ite. Mr. Rhys tells us that in Welsh romance Gavvain is 
never vanquished in battle until the day of his death." i 

In nearly every romance of the Arthurian cycle, Gawain 
has a prominent part. **In all these (poems and prose 
romances) Gawain appears as the beau ideal of courage and 
courtesy. . . . But in the later stage of the Arthur saga 
. . . the- character of Gawain undergoes a remarkable and 
striking change ; he becomes a mere libertine, cruel and 
treacherous. Even his valour is no longer unquestioned." "^ 

Gawain is second only to Perceval in both Chrestien's poem 
and Wolfram's, and those poems and the prose Perceval le 
Gallois give half the narrative to Gawain's adventures. 

When the quest of the Grail becomes the dominant sub- 
ject of the romances, when Galahad succeeds Perceval as 
chief hero, and when many knights take part in the adven- 
ture, Gawain becomes degraded in importance and in char- 
acter. Tennyson follows Malory in so far as he uses the old 
story in The Holy Grail, and if, as is sometimes stated, the 
Gawain of Malory were altogether unworthy, one could 
understand the character as presented by Tennyson. But 
Malory's book, being made up from many, is often incon- 
sistent,^ and nowhere more so than in those passages which 
relate to King Arthur's great nephew. One cannot but wish 
that the great nineteenth-century poet had done justice to 
the great knight of chivalry, whose tomb, so says the most 
ancient legend, recorded that Arthur's nephew was "not 
unworthy of Arthur." * 

It is interesting to notice a few of the epithets and phrases 
applied to Gawain in the old romances. In Chrestien's 
poem, Eric and Enide, Arthur "prayed Eric to return as 
soon as he might, for in all his court was no worthier cava- 
lier, save only Gawain, his dear nephew, with whom none 
could compare."^ In Perceval le Gallois, Gawain speaks 
"like the most courteous in the world " (1. 9544). 

1 Rhys, The Arthurian Legejid, i)p. 13, 14. 

2 Weston, Ch. IT. p. 8. 
^Ibid., pp. y-10. 

4 Ibid.,\).S. Gawain is first mentioned by Wilham of Malmes- 
bury (1125). Cf. Paris, Hist. Litt. de la France, Vol. XXX. 
p. 29. Madden, Syr Gawayne, p. xxiv. 

5 Newell, Vol. I. p. 40. Eric und Enide, Foerster's ed., 1890, 
Lines 2284-2289, p. 84. 



APPENDIX I. 123 

Chrestien's Gawain is courteous and bold. Perhaps Wol- 
fram's Gawain best illustrates the "patient and resourceful 
courtesy" which Mr. Nutt says is Gawain's " characteristic 
in medisBval romance." — Nutt, p. 241. 

When Parzival, brooding over his absent love, reminded 
of her red and white beauty by the blood-drops on the snow, 
falls into a dream and forgets to defend himself, it is Gawain 
who understands the love trance, and even its cause, so that 
he covers the stained snow with a cloth of silk and sendal. 
When Parzival learns that he is sj)eaking with Gawain, he 
says, " Thou hast this honour won, that all men thou treatest 
gently. " i 

In the Welsh Peredur ah Evrawc^ Kay taunts Gwalchmai 
(Gawain) with his over-gentleness : "Thus hast thou gained 
the advantage over many. And while thy speech and thy 
soft words last, a coat of thin linen were armour sufficient 
for thee." Arthur approves Gawain, and Peredur (Perci- 
val), when he hears his name, says: "I am right glad to 
meet with thee, for in every country where I have been, I 
have heard of thy fame for prowess and uprightness." ^ 

In Geoffrey of Monmouth we read of " Walgan (Gawain), 
whose valour was never to be foiled." ^ In Lp^yamon's BnU, 
" Walwain was full noble-minded ; in each virtue he was 
good ; he was liberal, and knight with the best."-* In the 
Englfsh Sir Perceval^ Gawain has the familiar traits : — 

" Bot tlianne ansuerde Syr Gawayne, 
Faire and curtaisely agayne."^ 

" Gawayne that was meke and mylde, 
And softe of ansuere."^ 

In the fourteenth-century English poem, Sir Gawain and 

een Knvjht^ Gawain bears a pentagle on his shield : 

was well suiting to this knight and to his arms, since 



II In tl 
^ the Gr( 

' "It VJ'c 



1 Parzival, Bk. VI. 11. 724-725. 

2 Lady Guest's Mabino(jion, Vol. I. pp. 327, :>29. 

3 Bk. X. Ch. X. 

4 Lines 2355-57. 

5 Lines 285-28(). 

6 Lines 291-292. Cf . Hallowell, J. O., The Thornton Romances, 
Cf. Swinburne, Tristram of Lyoncsse, L p. 32. 

** And gracious Gawain, scattering words as llowors," 



124 APPENDIX I. 

Gawain was faithful in five and five-fold, fm- jnire was he 
as gold, void of all villainy, and endowed with all virtues. 
Therefore he bare the pentagle on shield and surcoat as 
truest of heroes and gentlest of knights." ^ 

When Ciawain eanie to a strange Ciistle and told his name, 
the lord of the castle ''laughed aloud for gladness, and all 
men in that keep were joyful that they should be in the 
company of him to whom belonged all fame and valour and 
courtesy, and whose honour was praised above that of all 
men on earth. Kaeh said softly to his fellow, ' Now shall 
we see courteous bearing, and the manner of speech befitting 
courts. AVhat charm lieth in gentle speech shall we learn 
without asking, since here we have welcomed the fine father 
of courtesy.' " - 

In Malory'' s Morte Dart hit r, the character of Sir Gawain 

I is less noble than in Chrestien's or Wolfram's, until we come 

* to the story of the last days, a story that is unsurpassed in its 

presentation of knightly gentleness and generosity. In the 

Jlorte Darthurwe are told that Sir Gawain 'M*evenged the 

Bk. II. death of his father the tenth year after he Wiis made knight.'' 

XUI^ ~ The young Gawain asks that he may be made knight on 
the day that King Arthur shall wed Guinevere. '• I will do 
it with a good will," said King Arthur, "and do unto you 
all the worship that 1 may, for I nuist by reivson, ye are my 

Bk 111 nephew*, my sister's son." 

Ch. 11. The first adventure of Gawain results in his dishonor, 

for he is unmerciful to a fallen foe, and slays a fair lady 
by mischance. "And there, by ordinance of the queen, 

.,. ... there was set a quest of ladies on Sir Ciawaine, and thev 

nk. 111. 

i hs. v.- judged him for ever while he lived to be with all ladies, and 
to fight for their quarrels ; and that ever he should be cour- 
teous, and never to refuse mercy to him tliat asketh mercy." 
Gawain is called by King Pellinore " as good a knight of 
his time i^i.e. of his age) as any in this land." 

One of Gawain's strong traits is his devotion to his kinsfolk. 

Bk. IV. ^^' ^^ ^'^^s ^'^ ^^^^ *^^^^^ 1^^'^t brings the rupture between him 

(.'h. IV. m^^^ Lancelot. Early in Gawain's story, when Sir Uwaine 

is biuiished from court " Sir Gawaine made him ready to go 

^ Sir Gaivahi and t?ie Green Knirfht, translated by J. Weston, 
p. -4. 
- Sir Gawain ami the Green Knight^ p. SI. 



APPENDIX I. 125 

with him ; and said, * Whoso banisheth my cousin-german 
shall banish me/ " 

Gawain's love turns sometimes quickly to hatred when 
he is angered: **for he was vengeable, and when he hated 
Bk. IV. he would be avenged with murder.'' 

t ^Vi "Y" VT 

Malory's Ga wain then is good or bad, according to the 
Bk. VII. gtory which Malory chances to be translating. lie comes 
XXXIV. to be the best-beloved comrade of Lancelot, but he never has 
the better when Sir Lancelot is in the field. 

When the kuights take the vow to seek the Holy Grail, it 
Rk J •> 

XVIII. is Gawain who swears first, and King Arthur reproaches him 
Cb. X. ^]^r^^i ijg ijr^g t^ij^^g broken the fair fellowship of the Table 

Round. 

p. :u" '^^ * ' I" ^^is quest Sir Gawain comes to an abbey, and is 

shriven by a hermit, who reproaches him for his sinful life 

and bids him do penance. *'Nay, said Sir Gawaine, I may 

Bk XIII ^^ ^^ penance ; for we knights adventurous oft suffer 

Ch. XVII. great woe and pain."" The quest of the Holy Grail is not* 

for Sir Gawain. His hands are too deeply stained with 

nuirder, and his heart is too full of earthly love. When he 

is "nigh weary of the quest of the Sangreal," he dreams a 

Bk. XVI. marvelous dream which a hermit expounds to him, telling 

^''^- ^"^^ • him that such knights as "took upon them to go in the 

quest of the Sangreal without confession" may not succeed. 

" Knights of poor faith and of wicked belief, these three 

things failed, — charity, abstinence, and truth, — therefore 

ye may not attain that high adventure of the Sangreal.'" 

At length when Sir Gawain has been overthrown in a 

tournament by Sir Galahad, and badly wounded. Sir Ector 

says to him, " Meseemeth your quest is done. And yours 

is not done, said Gawaine, but mine is done. I shall seek 

no further." 

The Gawain of Malory's earlier books is the later and 
worse type of the legendary hero, but the Gawain of the 
last books is " Gawaine the courteous," the magnanimous 
and devoted friend of Lancelot and of the King. When 
Gawain is dying, he writes a letter to Lancelot, witli whom 
he has had a bitter quarrel, begging the great knight to 
return to King Artluir and save him from the traitor Mor- 
dred. "When Sir Arthur wist that Sir Gawaine was laid 
so low, he went unto him ; and there the King made sorrow 
out of me;\snrt% nnd look Sir (Jawain in his arms, and 



Oh. IV. 



Bk.XVII 
Ch. I. 



126 APPENDIX I. 

thrice he there swooned. And then when hjB awaked, he 
said : Alas, Sir Gawaine, my sister's son, here now thou 
liest ; the man in the world that I loved most ; and now is 
my joy gone, for now, my nephew. Sir Gawaine, I will dis- 
cover me unto your person. In Sir Launcelot and you J 
most had my joy and mine affiance, and now have I lost 
my joy of you both ; wherefore all mine earthly joy is gone 
from me. — Mine uncle, King Arthur, said Sir Gawaine, 
wit you well my death-day is come, and all is through 
mine own hastiness and wilfulness, for I am smitten upon 
the old wound the which Sir Launcelot gave me, on the 
which I feel well I must die ; and had Sir Launcelot been 
with you as he was, this unhappy war had never begun ; 
and of all this am I causer, for Sir Launcelot and his blood 
through their prowess held all your cankered enemies in 
subjection and daunger. And now, said Sir Gawaine, ye 
shall miss Sir Launcelot. But alas, I would not accord with 
him. ... 

'' Then when paper and ink was brought, then Gawaine 
was set up weakly by King Arthur, for he was shriven a 
little tofore : and then he wrote thus, as the French book 
maketh mention : Unto Sir Launcelot, flower of all noble 
knights that ever I heard of or saw by my day, I, Sir 
Gawaine, . . . send thee greeting, and let thee have knowl- 
edge that the tenth day of May I was smitten upon the old 
wound that thou gavest me afore the city of Benwick, and 
through the same wound that thou gavest me I am come to 
my death-day. And I will that all the world wit that I, Sir 
Gawaine, knight of the Table Bound, sought my death, and 
not through thy deserving, but it was mine own seeking. 
Wherefore I beseech thee. Sir Launcelot, to return again 
unto this realm, and see my tomb, and pray some prayer 
more or less for my soul, . . . for of a more nobler man 
might I not be slain. Also, Sir Launcelot, for all the love 
that ever w^as betwixt us, make no tarrying, but come over 
the sea in all haste, that thou mayst with thy noble knights 
rescue that noble king that made thee knight, that is, my 
Lord Arthur ; for he is full straitly bestead with a false 
traitor." — Mai., Bk. XXI. Oh. IL 

This passionate but generous and loyal Gawain is changed 
by Tennyson to a mere boaster and hypocrite. 

In Elaine we read : — 



I 



APPENDIX I. 127 

..." then from where he sat, 
At Arthur's right, with smiling face arose, 
With smiling face and frowning heart, a Prince, 
In the mid might and flourish of his May, 
Gawain, surnamed The Courteous, fair and strong ; 
And after Lancelot, Tristram, and Geraint, 
And Gareth, a good knight, but therewithal 
Sir Modred's brother and the child of Lot, 
Nor often loyal to his word ; and now. 
Wroth that the king's command to sally forth 
In quest of whom he knew not, made him leave 
The banquet, and concourse of knights and kings." 

..." his wonted courtesy. 
Courtesy with a touch of traitor in it." 

— Globe, p. 398. 

In Pelleas and Ettarre^ Gawain is represented as " light-of- 
love," untrue of his word, and false in knightly friendship. 

In The Passing of Arthur, the King, sleeping before the 
battle, hears the voice of Gawain warning him of the fate 
that awaits the morrow's conflict. The King wakes and 
cries, "Thine, Gawain, was the voice!" But Sir Bedivere 
bids him not heed the omen, for — 

" Light was Gawain in life, and light in death 
Is Gawain, for the ghost is as the man." 

— Globe, p. 459. 

This is an entire change from Malory's story. Bk.XXI. 
Ch. III. 

In the oldest legends of Gawain, he is given a peculiar 
trait — that his strength waxes between morning and noon, 
and wanes as the day declines. i " But Sir Gawayne fro 
it passed 9 of the clok, waxed ever stronger and stronger, 
fro thenne whan it was past noone, and whan it drew 
toward evensong, Syre Gawayne's strength febeld and waxt 
passynge faint, that unnethe he might dure ony lenger." '^ 
The old fable may be taken as a figure, for, as the strength 
of Galahad waxes, that of Gawain declines, until, at the 
hands of the nineteenth-century poet, he suffers worse than 

1 Weston, Sir Gawain, pp. 12-13. Potvin, Vol. IIL p. 334, 11. 
19139-19146. B. de Mer., Ch. XII. p. 137. 
2Mal. Som., Bk. IV. Ch. XVIII. 



128 APPENDIX III. 

death, for it seems a kind of crime to take away from even 
a legendary hero the glory that shone about his name 
through dim and far-away centuries.^ 

APPENDIX II. 

Line 290. "In the romance, to see the Graal is tanta- 
mount to the achievement of the Quest ; for . . . not even 
Galahad is allowed to see the Graal until the Quest is virtu- 
ally at an end. ... If Galahad had seen the Holy Grail, 
there was no longer any need of a vow, for to him, the 
Quest was achieved. Tennyson, not recognizing the fact 
that to see the Holy Vessel is equivalent to the achievement 
of the adventure, has transferred to his pages the very words 
of the vow as they stand in the romance, viz., ' to follow till 
they see,' and then has added this exclamation of Galahad, 

" ' But I, Sir Arthur, saw the Holy Grail,' 

as a fanciful touch of his own, thus stultifying the whole 
story." — Gurteen, The Arthurian Epic, pp. 258-259. 

Only baptized eyes can see the Grail. In Parzival, Feire- 
fiz, the heathen half-brother of Parzival, does not see it, 
even in the hall of Monsalvat, until he has received baptism. 
— Parzivah Bk. XVI. 11. 699-707, 797-802, 950-953. 



APPENDIX III. 

" Whatever may, at the outset, have been the origin of the 
Grail legend and the tales of Arthur and his knights, so 
much is certain, the romances, as we possess them in the 

1 Chaucer's "Squire" describes a strange knight who came 
before the court : — 

*' With so heigh reverence and obeisaunce, 
That Gawayn with his olde curteisye, 
Though he were comen ageyn out of fairye, 
Ne koude hym not amende with a worde." 

— The Squire's Tale, 11. 89-91. 

Cf . Swinburne, The Tale of Balen, I. p. 14. 

** — Gawain, sweet of soul and gay 
As April ere he dreams of May." 



I 



APPENDIX in. 129 

Mss. of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, came into 
existence in the north of France, toward the latter half of 
the twelfth century. The romance writers collected, in all 
probability, the metrical accounts, or lays, recited by wan- 
dering minstrels, welded them together into a more or less 
harmonious whole, and retold them in prose. These roman- 
cers, too, united for the first time the worldly adventures of 
the knights of the Round Table with the spiritual story of 
the Holy Grail, yielding in that to the tendencies of the 
age." — IT. Oskar Sommer, Le Roman de Merlin^ pp. 7-8. 

M. Gaston Paris, who speaks, perhaps, with greater author- 
ity than any other student of Arthurian romance, gives the 
date of Chrestien's Perceval as about 1180. Hist.Litt.de la 
France, Tome 30, p. 23. 

Miss Jessie Weston says in the introduction to her trans- 
lation of Wolfram's Farzival : "Wolfram's greatest work, 
the Farzival, was apparently written within the early years 
of the thirteenth century ; he makes constant allusions to 
events happening, and to works produced, within the first 
decade of that period ; and as his latest work, the Wille- 
halm, left unfinished, mentions as recent the death of the 
Landgrave Herman of Thuringia, which occurred in 1216, 
the probability seems to be that the Parzival was written 
within the first fifteen years of the thirteenth century." 
pp. ix-x. 



INDEX TO THE NOTES. 



Agned-Cathregonion, 109. 

Agnes, Saint, 99. 

Ambrosius, 96, 117. 

Ancient Mariner, The, 118. 

Arnold, Matthew, 95. 

Arthur, 95, 96, 98, 100, 102, 104, 108- 

112, 114, 120, 121. 
Arviragus, 98, 99. 
Avalon (Avallon), 109. 

Badon (Bath), 109. 

Balen, The Tale of, 95. 

Balin and Balan, 98. 

Ban, 100. 

Bassa, 109. 

Borron, Robert de, 102. 

Bors, 94, 100, 117-118, 121. 

Bors, King, father of Sir Bors, 100. 

Breguoin (Cat Bregion), 108. 

Brut, by Layamon, 95, 97, 109. 

Brut, Le Roman de, by Wace, 95, 96. 

Caerleon (Cair Lion), 108, 109. 

Cairmardin, 103. 

Caliburn. Cf. Excalibur. 

Camelot, 95, 106-108, 113, 114. 

Carbonek, 119, 120. 

Catherine of Siena, 99. 

Caxton, 95. 

Celidon, 108-109. 

Chrestien de Troyes, 99, 101, 122-124. 

Coleridge, 118. 

Coming of Arthur, The, 110. 

Crashaw, 99. 

Dante, 116, 118. 

Didot, 99. 

Dindrane. Cf . Percevale's sister. 

Duglas, 108-109. 

Dynevowre, 102. 



Ector de Maris, 118. 
Enoch Arden, 99. 
Excalibur, 109-110. 

Faerie Queene, The, 95, 97, 102-103. 

Galahad, 94, 95, 100-103, 105, 111- 

113, 115-117, 121. 
Gareth and Lijnette, 106-107, 114. 
Gate of the Three Queens, The, 107, 

114. 
Gautier de Doulens, 99. 
Gawain (Gawaine), 104, 106, App. I. 
Geoffrey of Monmouth, 95, 102, 109. 
Geraint, The Marriage of, 100. 
Glastonbury, 98. 
Glem (Glen), 108, 109. 
Graal, Le Conte du, 99. Cf . Perceval 

le Gallois. 
Graal, Le Grand St., 94-95, 100-101, 

116. 
Graal, La Queste del, 99, 100-101 » 

104-105. 
Grail. Cf. Holy Grail. 
Guinevere, 95, 98, 113, 117. 
Guinevere, The Defence of, 95. 
Guinevere, The Idyll, 97, 111. 
Guinnion Castle (Castle Gurnion), 

108-109. 

Hawker, Stephen, 105. 

Hengist, 112. 

Holy Grail, The, 93, 95-96, 104-106, 

111, 113, 117, 119-120. 
Holy Grail, The High History of the, 

99. 
Hovey, Richard, 95. 



II Penseroso, 96. 
In Memoriam, 96. 



131 



■'W 



132 



INDEX TO NOTES. 



Joseph of Arimathaea, 93, 97-98, 

100, 117. 
Joseph of Arimathie, poem, 93. 
Josephes, 95, 117. 

Ladij of Shalott, The, 108. 
Lady of the Lake, The, 103, 110. 
Lancelot, 98, 100-101, 105, 108-109, 

111-114, 117-121. 
Lancelot and Elaine, 111-112, 118. 
Last Tournament, The, 108, 119. 
Launfal, The Vision of Sir, 105-106. 
Layamon, 95, 97, 109. 
Lionel, 118. 

Logris (Leogris), 94, 100, 108. 
Lonelich, 95. 
Lowell. Cf. Launfal. 
Lussas, 108. 
Lynette. Cf. Gareth. 
Lyonesse, 95. 
Lytton, Sir Edward Bulwer, 95, 112. 

Maiden's Croft, 96. 
Merlin, 95, 97, 100, 102-103, 108, 110. 
Merlin and Vivien, 97, 102. 
Merlin, Le Roman de, 95, 110. 
Merlin, The Suite de Merlin, and 

The Vulgate Merlin, 102. 
Milton, 96, 116. 
Morris, William, 95. 
Morte Darthur, 99, 101-102. 
Morte d' Arthur, 94, 95, 110. 

Nasciens, 94. 
Nennius, 95, 108-109. 

Paradise Lost, 116. 

Paradiso, II, 118. 

Parzival, 101. 

Parzival, 94, 99. 

Passing of Arthur, The, 110. 

Pelinor, father of Perceval, 100. 

Pellam, 98. 

Pendragon, surname of Other, 



Arthur, and a brother of Uther, 

102, 110-111. 
Perceval (Percevale, Percivale) , 94- 

95, 100, 105, 113, 114-117, 121-123. 
Perceval le Gallois, poem, 99, 101, 

122-124. 
Perceval le Gallois, prose, 122. 
Perceval's sister, 99, 101-102, 118, 

121. 
Princess, The, 115. 
Purgatorio, II, 116. 

Round Table, The, 96, 102, 113, 118- 
120. 

St. Agnes Eve, 99. 

Sangreal. Cf . Holy Grail. 

Sangreal, The Queste of the, 105. 

Sarras, 116. 

Siege perilous. The, 102. 

Spenser, 95, 97, 102. 

Swinburne, 95, 99, 102, 108. 

Tacitus, 112. 

Taliesin, 111. 

Taliessin, a Masque, 95. 

Tennyson, Hallam, Lord, 96. 

Tennyson, Lady, 96. 

Theresa, Ode to Saint, 99. 

Trat Tremroit (Trath Treroit), 108, 

109. 
Tristram (Tristan), 95, 102, 105, 108. 
Tristram and Iseult, 95. 
Tristram of Lyonesse, 95, 102, 108. 
Twelve great battles, the, 108, 109. 

Uther Pendragon, 102, 110-111. 

Wace, Robert, 95, 96. 

White Horse, 109, 112. 

Winchester, 95. 

Wolfram von Eschenbach, 94, 99, 

101. 
Wordsworth, poem, Yew Trees, 96. 



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